Fone Forum

I enjoyed myself enormously yesterday, trying out our updated software, and finding new facilities enabled.        ;D

There was a short period of experimentation, about which you can read in this thread (http://www.foneforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,1507.0.html).        ;)

The diverse reactions encountered then showed me one thing clearly: "you can't please all of the people all of the time!"        :'(

However, I have sought to disprove that old adage, and have come up with an idea that will enable every member to make their own choice of a colour scheme ( 'theme' in SMF speak ) to their own liking.        :o

I have enabled every member to view, and use, the forum, using the theme of their own choice ( when they are logged in. )       ;)

Nobody is forced to take part in this experiment, and those who couldn't care less about such things need do nothing.  The default theme ( called Core ) will continue to be used for all guests, and will remain as the default for every member who doesn't want to change it for themselves.        :)

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However, for those who would like a change, or who are curious to see what is available, the procedure to adopt is as follows:-

1).  Go to your own PROFILE page by clicking on the 'PROFILE' label in our top menu bar;

2).  Look down the left hand side for 'Modify Profile';

3).  Click on 'Look and Layour Preferences'.

When you have done that, you will be able to do 3 things.

First, you can see all of the currently available themes ( a dozen at present ) by going to Current Theme, and clicking on ( change ).

Second, you can preview them all, one by one, by clicking on the 'preview >>'  link at the far right hand side.

And third, you may, if you wish, select your own theme, which will be presented to you as soon as you login to your account here, by clicking on 'use this theme'.         ;)

All of our themes have been tested, and seem to work correctly.  All choices can be undone, and members are free to change their 'Look and Layout Preferences' as often as they like.        :)

It will be interested to learn who likes what, and feedback is always welcome.        ;)

MH That's a nice wee idea.I like that. I am came across something and I am not sure where to put it so thought probably here.

If you click on the following link you come across the email address and IM's of the members. I am not sure If thats a good idea. I will say its better to hide them  ::)

http://www.foneforum.co.uk/index.php?action=mlist

The information shown against every member is determined by their own choice when they registered here.        ;)

They can choose to hide their email address from other members, and only those who selected 'allow other members to email them' will have an envelope showing in the Email column.  Others will show nothing at all, and only admin have access to their email address.        ;)

If you, or anyone else, is unhappy with what information is shown about you in the Member list, you are free to change it via your settings in your Profile page (http://www.foneforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile), which you can modify at any time.        :)

This is one example of where having polls enabled could be a really good idea!

Theme "Blue Smile" wins for me! ;)

Well there is an interesting 'spread' of choices so far, though with the vast majority not having made a choice so far !        :o

As for your beloved polls, I will try enabling them experimentally just for you !        :-*

But it's up to you to set up your poll, and we will assess how it goes afterwards.        ;)

OK with you ?        :-\

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Update:-  Although I have enabled polls, and given permissions to every membergroup ( except guests ) to Vote in polls, Post polls, Add polls to topics, and Edit their own polls ( with additional permissions for Moderators ), this is simply not working at present - for reasons I can't fathom out right now.

I don't know if the settings changes will take some time to come into effect, but I can't fix it currently.  Sorry petkow.        :'(

My vote is for BlackRain V3.:)

mh polls ARE enabled on other board, it is just on this one that they won't work.  ;)

HTH.

Actually... I have just changed my mind to "As Theme"! I love it! I like Black Rain too, but there are funny things going on with buttons, and smilies.

I have just changed to the As theme after reading your post, but it is as bad as the one I was using before in not showing the new Users Logged in Today list!  ???

It seems to me that some themes are too old to show the new feature, though BlackRain V.3 and the default one do, as well as others probably.  ;)

Well congratulations to 2 of our members here for some sharp 'detective work' !       :)

HiPD is right in that the restrictions I had to place on this board are the reason why polls do not work here.
petkow needs to make a poll on another board if he wishes to pursue his interest in such.       ;)
( I shall remove this facility again if he has lost his interest. )

Secondly, HiPD has found out something of which I was not aware.  I shall test all our themes tomorrow, and those which fail to display our latest ( actually only ) 'Mod' will be deleted.

Well done guys !        :)

Excelent idea. Well done. I've opted in for As theme. It's good to have a choice..

dlR

Following the information that came to light last night, I have conducted more thorough tests of the themes we did have available, and I have had to remove 10 of them.  I am sorry for those who liked one of these themes, but they proved incompatible with the latest version of SMF software that we are now enjoying.  This came to light by their being unable to display the Users Logged In Today information, but my concern was not just with that, but with the fact that I couldn't be sure what else might not work for those employing them.  In consequence, Classic YaBB, Babylon, Supernatural, Green Blitz, Delta, Esen, Hepimici, PinskSt, As, and the Hobbit have all been deleted.        :'(

This leaves us with just 5 now available.  In addition to the default Core ( shown to guests, and to members who do not opt to change their theme ) we have bisdakworldgreen, Blue Smile, BlackRain v3, and Pblue.  My personal recommendation would be to use either bisdakworldgreen or Blue Smile, because of the efficient way in which they use the screen.  Both actually show slightly more than even the default Core.  I am using Blue Smile myself.        ;)

In due course I may find other themes which are fully compatible with our updated software, but this is not a huge priority.
( Many of the latest ones available can only be used with SMF 2.0 RC3, and cannot be used with SMF 1.1.11.  They remove all access to all of our top menu bar options, as I discovered to my embarrassment. )

Thanks for the new Hasam theme mh, it's great!    ;D

Dear Mobaholic,

Is there anything wrong with themes applying on to our profiles? Yesterday I applied a theme and today it is showing the default old profile theme.

Regards,
Srikanth.

I am sorry I haven't read your last post which provides the information. I am also playing with some settings on my preferences and layout section so it is showing the newest posts upwards now previously it use to be vice versa.

That's fine srikanth.nuli.  You are free to choose your own settings, and to change them when you want.        :)

Just to let you know we now have 4 more themes.  Flagrant is quite nice; but I don't recommend Loner, Reference, or Synchronize because they do funny things with the page size.  You will need to try them for yourself if you don't understand my last remark.        ;)

Nice work ..I like Black Rain :)..
Regards.
gemeni5093

I used Hasan, Beautiful!

I used Black Rain, very good indeed.

Well done to MH and to everyone involved for these wonderful colour themes.

Jagga303

Do other users who use black rain not see the annoying spots across the menu bar?

There is a criss-cross border that frames the whole screen, if that is what you mean, but NO spots here.  What are you on about?   :-\

BTW you have been a pain in the proverbial demanding polls from mh, and then done nothing about them.  ???

He said he would disable them again if you don't, and I would predict this will happen sooner rather than later.  As you obviously have spent a lot of time making other posts, so why not "pull your finger out" and get on with it?   :-\

Just my advice anyway.  ;)

 

I have edited HiPD's post, as he tells me the software did not give him the option to do so himself.    :'(

He assures me that he tried opting back into the default Core theme, but this made no difference at all.  It is therefore not something specifically related to the Black Rain theme he is using.    ::)

I suggest that mh should look into this issue, as it is the first report that I have seen of a member being unable to modify his own post.   ;)

Thanks for enabling Polls Mobaholic.
Thank you for reminding me to use them.
Unfortunately I have been too busy to set one up since they have been enabled, especially as the options of themes available change on a daily basis.

I just thought it might be useful to make use of them such as for asking about what people may want as a default theme. It is not my job to set up such a poll. If no-one in the forum management is interested in allowing its users to come to a democratic consensus on such matters (or anything else), then by all means just disable the facility. It's no shirt off my back! That way I do not have to take such crap again! After all, I hardly see the point of a Poll where the same users can sign in as multiple user

...s.

(I cannot edit my post either. That is disabled on this board!)

Thanks for your comments petkow.  Actually I haven't reminded you about the polls.  I accept you may be busy, and am quite prepared to give some time for this.  Do you think it would be helpful to have a board specifically for polls, on the Miscellaneous section perhaps ?        :-\

Although I deleted 10 themes one day for reasons I explained, and managed to add 4 more the following day, I don't think it is fair to imply that this quite amounts to changing on a daily basis !        ;)

The problems being reported on this board are undoubtedly connected with the action I had to take to restrict posting here.  You may not be aware of the reasons for this.  For some period many members, who couldn't be bothered to look and see where a post should be made, took the easy way out of posting on the first board available: here.  There were a host of such posts made, which I had to move, as they were nothing to do with forum announcements at all !       ???

Accordingly, I tried to make this a read only board, where only Moderators could post, but for unknown reasons the software on this board never behaved as expected.  The result is that, although it may need a Moderator to begin a thread here, 'all and sundry' are able to make replies apparently ( though not to edit them it seems ! )        ::)

If you are interested in the technicalities,  all SMF boards are either 'general permissions' ones, or 'local permissions' ones.  I have to make this a local permission board in order to restrict posting rights here ( and the software doesn't allow a switch back in the opposite direction. )  I have played with the settings of this board endlessly, but it has never worked as I wanted.        :'(

So that is a little bit of history for you, which may explain some of the things reported by another member and yourself.       ;)

I will send you a PM tomorrow about other things you wrote.

I see them too, but I thought it was Black Rain. 8)

...and I didn't specifically say that you did so either.

I find it very strange that you should say so, as I made just one passing mention to it here on this thread! Even there, I didn't specifically mention that I was interested in starting a poll. I would hardly call this "demanding"! I just stated that a poll could be a good method of gauging users opinions about what is being discussed in this thread:


Of course I have said quite a bit more about polls... but that was on a thread that is located in the Seniors board, which members like you with under 200 posts are not really supposed to have access to!  :-\

I fully intended last night to send both HiPD and petkow PMs, following their exchange on this thread, and I shall still do so.  However, in view of some misrepresentations, and some confusion that has arisen, I believe that it is necessary to publicly post some clarifications.

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HiPD, please do not pretend to know more about what I think than you do.  You just make yourself look ridiculous, and cause unnecessary trouble, that way.

Secondly, I shall seriously fall out with you if you grossly misrepresent what I have told you.  I did reply to your PM query about petkow and polls, but all that I told you was there had been some discussion, at some length, on another board, and that he was in favour of them.  I did NOT say, or in any way imply, that I thought petkow was being a pain about this.  You seriously misrepresented my position, and I shall thank you to stop trying to use me to aggravate petkow.

( It is true that we did disagree about the usefulness of polls, but my willingness to let him trial them shows that I am open to being persuaded otherwise about this issue. ) 

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petkow, your first 2 sentences were: "Thanks for enabling Polls Mobaholic.
Thank you for reminding me to use them".
Where did you indicate any change in the person whom you were addressing ?

Secondly, you have twice made unsubstantiated allegations about 'glove puppetry', and multiple accounts, which are unworthy of you.  I know of no evidence for this.  HiPD's connection to the forum is, and always has been, unique to him, and is not shared by any other member.

( Of course this guarantees nothing, as I know no personal details of any member's identity other than what he chooses to disclose to me.  But even Oron, with all of his love of imposing rules, could stop some multiple user accounts slipping past him.  Do you remember non_mercury_fan, and Paul Varjak, on the no-longer-nifty forum ?  When I reported what I believed to Oron - not making snide posts I might add ! - he simply told me that he could not see that they were the individual whom I thought.  He was not prepared to take any action without evidence.  This is one principle that I have to follow myself.  So HiPD's account is a single one, at least until any evidence is produced to the contrary. )

Lastly, it was outrageous of you to suggest that whatever views HiPD expressed were indicative that "no-one in the forum management is interested in allowing its users to come to a democratic consensus on such matters (or anything else)....."  You knew this to be UNTRUE - not least because Mikael had spoken up as being in favour of polls in the Senior Members board thread, and you knew him to be more positive about them than I am, or was !

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From my own perspective, I think that HiPD is still stuck in the past.  I understand that he had a rough and bruising time on the other forum, which is one reason why I am sympathetic to him, and he may well have seen petkow there as being a something of a stooge for Oron.  I did myself, when he forwarded one of my private PMs to Oron, who immediately threatened to ban me !  But petkow has left there now: the past is no longer relevant.  Things have moved on !  You need to know HiPD that petkow is here with my warm welcome.  He has already made a tremendous contribution by way of posts.  I shall not get rid of him to please you.

And petkow, you need to know similarly that HiPD has made his own 'colourful' contribution here.  He is 'part of our furniture' !  He, too, is staying.

I appeal to you both to settle any outstanding issues between yourselves via PMs.  I do not wish to see you being like a terrier at petkow's heels HiPD.  And neither do I want to see any unsubstantiated allegations from you again petkow.  You are both far too valueable to the forum to dispense with either of you.  So please forgive and forget the past, settle your differences, learn to coexist, and start to collaborate constructively.  That would be one of the most constructive ways you can both help the forum.

Thank you.

Wise and constructive comments, MH.

Here's some true wisdom: "first rule of holes - when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging".

Anyhow, there's plenty I can say about all of this, but I won't, as judging by the above, way too much has been said already. Isn't this a forum about phones and stuff? Let's just stick with that!

???  So who do I apparently have an outstanding issue with? Over what exactly?

Anyhow, as usual, I'll happily move on over all this. I can deal with all the stuff that happens here, no matter how bizarre I may think it is!

That's very funny: aren't polar bears the experts at digging holes ?        :-\

I thought that was how they catch their fish !        :o

( They probably prefer larger prey, come to think about it.  Is it seals they seek ? )         :-\     

The nose along the ground is trying to catch a smell for some prey, isn't it ?        :-\

Never mind, let's move on as you suggest.       :)

This thread has served its purpose in informing members about how to choose their own theme.  Polls probably won't work reliable here, so those enthusiastic to see them may request a special board for them if they wish.        ;)

Any takers ?  delaro ?  petkow ?  Anyone else ?        :-\

( Requests via PM please. )

EOT.