Testing the new site!

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:54 am

Looks like we're up and running!

Post by **Varl** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 8:52 am

We are! I love the font choices for this stylesheet, particularly the Reply and New Topic font.

Post by **McDeath** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:00 am

Oh yes, lots of new fonts. Soon more emotes as well (not that I use them very often. I mean, I'm not Matan).

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:35 pm

testing some new icons

Post by **Thorn Blackstone** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:55 pm

Halaster, here's the new test post. Ill see if I can get that other icon to you.

Post by **McDeath** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 7:15 am

I was looking at the button indicators on posts at the bottom of the forum main pages, and for the life of me I can't tell the difference between the two green buttons: New Posts & New Posts (Popular)

Shouldn't the popular one be pulsating like the blue read posts button. Also, will the announcement or sticky have a pulsating button also for popular visits?

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:28 am

McDeath wrote:

I was looking at the button indicators on posts at the bottom of the forum main pages, and for the life of me I can't tell the difference between the two green buttons: New Posts & New Posts (Popular)

That's because there is no difference.

I made them the same, for two reasons. One, I have no clue how to alter an animated gif image. And two, I always thought having a button for "popular" posts was idiotic. If I see a thread that has 5 replies, it's obviously not popular. If it has 86 replies over the course of 8 pages, then yes, it's clearly popular. When I see a "popular" button flashing to tell me that the thread with 86 replies is "popular", the first thing I think is "well, no shit!".

Just not sure of the "need" for a button to "alert" us to the fact that a thread with a hundred replies is popular.

Although if people want it, why not? It's not that it bothers me, I just don't see the need. And since I didn't know how to do that anyway...

Shouldn't the popular one be pulsating like the blue read posts button. Also, will the announcement or sticky have a pulsating button also for popular visits?

Actally, if someone who knows how to change or create animted gifs, I'd be glad to get those pulsating buttons back up. I do like flashing buttons for new posts, and I'd like to have something to differentiate new sticky posts and announcement posts from old ones. The new ones would pulsate.

Anyone here want to volunteer to do the animation?

Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:04 am

I'm just tweaking some color settings, and I think this might be a good idea...

For the little circle buttons that tell you if there are new posts, I'm thinking of making the "No New Posts" a gray/black color. Then "New Posts" would remain bright green. Locked threads would remain red with a lock. Makes no sense to have a "New Post Locked" icon, since once you lock a thread, nobody can post new messages to it!

So those would remain the same.

"Anouncement" would remain yellow, with a blinking yellow for new posts added. "Sticky" would remain blue, with a blinking blue for new posts added.

Unless someone cares about "popular posts"

, we can leave them unchanged from the normal colored version. Otherwise, we can get them blinking too.

So, can anyone do animated gifs?

Post by **Unther** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:20 am

I can work out how to if we need them. I'm sure it will only take me about half an hour...

Sun Mar 18, 2007 11:41 am

Unther...if that's the case, could you copy the New Posts (green), Sticky (blue), and Announcement (yellow) icons and make them pulsate?

I set the threshhold for "popular" posts at 1,000, so we won't have to deal with that nonsense. The locked posts can remain the same.

Post by **McDeath** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:28 pm

Anyone ever notice that the main page doesn't link to anywhere?

Undermountain

I think it needs a 'Dare yea enter?' button or something that leads to the next page.

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:56 pm

I created that really more as a static homepage for my browser, not as a portal or anything. Though I probably should do something with it, shouldn't I?

Post by **McDeath** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 10:10 pm

I also can't seem to find a way to the download pages. Maybe I'm just used to the DF buttons on top on that site.

Did you know the old forums are still around?
BIP Old Site
Old BIP Entrance

I couldn't find the old Orcus page.

Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:22 pm

The old site is still up, but I turned it off so it's totally inactive, ie no replies, no new sign ups, no nothing outside of reading it.

Here's the new main page with the new pic:

http://www.undermountain.org/bip.html

The Orcus pic was (I believe) only used at the new site, then changed when we switched the layout to the parchment style. I have a copy of that if you need it.

I haven't gotten the downloads or articles pages up yet, mainly because I need someone who's got the skills for designing web pages. I'm practically prehistoric when it comes to designing web pages. So for now, the downloads are linked in the threads for each one. And there's also a thread in the Back In Print subforum that lists all the downloads we have:

viewtopic.php?t=62

I'm working on designing the download pages and the other stuff now, so we can expand some in the near future.

Post by **Jared Synn** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 2:02 am

I like the new pic/style, but that Orcus one looked great too!

Post by **McDeath** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 7:45 am

Should I direct some traffic from Candlekeep towards here? Or from some of the other sites. I noticed the membership is only 28.

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 5:58 pm

If you can manage to get some active members, sure. I couldn't care less at this point if we suddenly got 700 new members and none of them posted. I'd rather sign up 2 new members who actually post. A forum is only as good as its active members. Everyone else is just window dressing. No offense to the lurkers, it's just a fact. A discussion forum is only a discussion forum when members are active. Otherwise, it's just a collection of accounts.

But yes, invite everyone from everywhere. Especially if there are artists to invite!

The more people we have, the more likely we are to have more participants. I wish I had the email addresses to everyone from ADNDCampaigns.com. Speaking of which, does anyone remember the URL for the Bloodstone Lands development project Zherbus started up? Is that still active?

Post by **Thorn Blackstone** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 2:29 am

How about an invite at Grognard Tavern? It'd be cool to get Gutboy and the others to stop by at least now and then.

Post by **Jared Synn** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 8:35 pm

You could post invites at DF, Candlekeep, Grognard Tavern, and Rob Kuntz's Pied Piper site.

Post by **Beowulf** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:17 am

I think Halaster has worn out his wecome at DF.

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:54 am

Halaster got tired of all the off-topic crap, clowning, moderator harassment, and politics at DF.

Funny how Steve claimed I was the problem, and yet a week or two back I stopped in to see who was left there, and there's some huge thread about all the stupid OT posts and IBL posts and +1 posts and other crap. Lots of faces I knew are nowhere to be seen. Fighting, arguing, bitching. Only now they don't have Halaster to blame.

I wonder if Steve would shit if I signed back up?

I see Planet 'Tard is back up too, and hooting/hollering about how they're better than DF. ROTFLMAO! I don't think so! DF may have some issues, but it's not the stinking ass-crack that Planet 'Tard is, where the most beloved topic is the insane "Can paladins be assassins". Anyone who posts something like that should be pummeled to death with a clue bat and the body left to rot.

I'd recruit at Grognard Tavern, but I'd feel rude because I haven't posted there much in a long time. Maybe I should try re-invigorating things there. You know, that might not be a bad idea. Help other OOP sites like that and ask them to help up. Team up to build up both.

Post by **McDeath** » Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:04 pm

I really only liked Planet AD&D for the Core Rules downloads they had (course I think I have all of those now on cd somewhere). The forums were meh.

Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:51 am

The forums were a cesspool of stupidity. You couldn't pay me to wade through that again!

Post by **Thorn Blackstone** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:16 pm

I wish we had a copy of that rant you (Halaster) posted at Planet AD&D, about paladin assassins. You summed it up hysterically!

Post by **McDeath** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:50 pm

I really didn't know where to put this but I figured this would be as good as any place. Anyway, I cleaned out my cookies and had to reload certain pages I use frequently (takes time for the new cookies to reestablish on dialup). So, I go and hit my favorites to get the front page of BIP to come up. While waiting for all the images to appear I couldn't help but wonder why the center piece was taking so long. I hit properties and noticed it was a bmp that took over 400k space. I saved the image and made a jpg if you want to replace it with that. The jpg version is only 45k so that page should load up much faster.