Coming soon to a forum near you

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Youtube demonstrating the changes Here’s a sneak peak of upcoming changes to the forum. We’ ve got a new “skin” on the forum that will make it easier
[See the full post at: Coming soon to a forum near you]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Susan, I can see the changes, and I find they do not look like they may be a problem to use, or that one needs a lot of training and taking courses to know how to do things there.

Now a question: I noted the new and useful buttons to get to where one needs to go, in some cases, only now faster by clicking on them. I have not noticed much change in the appearance of the Forum, the place where one would start a new thread, for example: did I miss something there that is now different from what it was before? If so, is this new look also enabling some other things to get done better, faster, or for the firs time?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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There’s a “new topic” button that is new.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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OscarCP

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I saw that button in the video. I was asking what was new in the looks of the place and if so, what the change would be for. I asked because I have not noticed a change. But I am remarkable unobservant of interior decoration.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Many thanks.  I look forward to the change!  (However, I must confess I have not been able to shake off my preference for the format/appearance/functionality of the old Windows Secrets Lounge!)

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wavy

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For me, this is just an utterly weird site now. If I use the link to the test site to see how it looks, sadly, I get a DIFFERENT LOOK ON EACH BROWSER. Plus, a different look when not logged in as opposed to logged in. 🙁

The site was ok as it was. Why did it need changes (other than the one change that is really needed and we will never enjoy – the ability to preview our posts)?

I see different link colors now based on the browser I am on (if using the new site). For a tech site it seems embarrassing. I don’t use Accessibility Microsoft Windows features as those just make every site utterly hideous and take away the ability to have a nice desktop theme. (So, that is not the reason for the differences I see here on different browsers). What is happening at this site, I might have expected twenty years ago…but now?

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Many have stated that it was not easy to find where to start a post.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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I agree the site was fine the way it was, but we dont see “behind the scenes”.

I see different link colors now based on the browser I am on (if using the new site). For a tech site it seems embarrassing.

I think you can also use this angle of view: the site is customisable by your needs, you can adjust colors as you like them. They will respect your browser settings.

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I checked the forum and liked what I saw. The layout seemed well organized and easy to navigate. Thank you for asking for user input.

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In light of the current discussion in at least one other thread about link colors in the AskWoody Forums redesign, here’s a timely article from the Mozilla blog, referred by the October 2021 issue of the Macrium Software Home Newsletter:

Why are hyperlinks blue?

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/deep-dives/why-are-hyperlinks-blue/

For some of us this is quite a walk down memory lane . . .

(I wasn’t sure where to put this since we now have more than one thread about the forums redesign but this is the most recent one so here it is.)

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kewlputergeek

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Tangentially-related: link color and decoration are vitally important for people w/ visual challenges (and anyone w/ challenges that uses screen reading technology)!

https://webaim.org/blog/wcag-2-0-and-link-colors/

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I had never realized that you could click on the link under “Last Post” and be taken to the last post on a thread. My typical strategy has been to click on the “Home” tab, look at the Blog threads and then click on the “Comment on the AskWoody Lounge” link, which would take me to the first post in the thread. That way I can get a good review of what had started the thread and then scroll DOWN to see all of the posts that had been made. Sometimes, it’s my first look at the thread and so starting from the top to get the lay of the land seemed the reasonable way to learn what the thread is all about. Other times, I had read posts on the thread before (but maybe not recently), but some would be familiar, so this helps me get my bearings so that I can really focus on where the new posts start (the dates on the posts help out here). Often I will reply to a post somewhere in the thread, maybe an early post, maybe a later post, but usually not the last post.

It looks like in the future, one will enter a thread by clicking on the “Last Post” link, which will open at the bottom of the thread. And then, one will have to scroll UP, maybe to where one last read a post and then follow the conversation DOWN to the last post.

I am mostly in “learning mode” here on the site – not looking for an answer to a specific question, but trying to learn as much as I can, especially when it comes to monthly patches and Windows 10 Feature Updates. As I read in this Blog post, the “Comment on the AskWoody Lounge” link will not longer appear at the top of a thread. If so, my preference for reading a thread will no longer exist. I guess I will find out and will have to change my habits accordingly.

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The “reply” at the bottom of the post is still there.  What this adds is a new link at the top for those that come in from different ways.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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Didn’t I read in your Blog that the “Comment” link is going to disappear, as quoted below??

I am guessing that you are referring to this link?

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Yes, on Tuesday when we roll out the new skin/theme.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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I have a Mac now, so instead of those PC key strokes WCHS uses, I use equivalent ones that are actually keyboard shortcuts using either the left or the right arrow key together with the “fn” one. With them I can go all the way up or all the way down from wherever in a page I might be, in a jiffy. If I want to go slowly, instead, and not the whole way up or down, then I scroll. If I want to page, up or down, I click on the scroll bar above or below the current location of the slider: one peck on the bar per page change (there is also a shortcut using the up/down arrow keys, but only several spaces up or down at the time). It works for me, including in all of my browsers. And if in my browsers, then in AskWoody, and if in AskWoody, then even beyond, and if even beyond, then far, far away. And if far, far away, then the world is my oyster.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP wrote:

so instead of those PC key strokes WCHS uses,

Why do you think I used keystrokes?? I either scroll or use keyboard shortcuts like you do, but on my Windows 10.

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I possibly misunderstood the following: “My typical strategy has been to click on the “Home” tab.” Because in Windows, if I remember correctly, there is (or was) a “Home” key on the keyboard, to go “up” all the way on whatever one is looking at on the monitor screen that is page-shaped.

My mistake.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Personally I think it looks good Susan. The bigger font size is easier for me to read, and the blue color is great.  I use Linux Mint and Firefox and it looks good to me.  I must say however that I haven’t been able test out everything, but I don’t think I’ll have any problem.  Thanks.

Being 20 something in the 70's was much more fun than being 70 something in the 20's.

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Charlie, you write: “The bigger font size is easier for me to read”

I just started a second session, so I could flick and see by turns the current AskWoody look, unmodified, and then the new and improved, and back again, and so on and so forth, several times, but have noticed no difference in font size, with the zoom set identically in both cases, as I was using the same browser in the same computer. Could it be, not their size, but that the letters might be slightly darker in the new and improved?

Breaking news: It is not the letters, is the spacing between the lines: it is wider now!

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Yes that’s possible.  Or maybe some fonts have been made bolder.  I just know it looks much better to me than the original on my machines (Linux & Win 7 with FF).

Being 20 something in the 70's was much more fun than being 70 something in the 20's.

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for me the font is too big, but I have made mods to that in browser. Collapsing the link chain or the blog would be nice.

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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The new design is easier to read in some respects, but the color selection may need some tweaking. See the first screenshot below and focus on the “AskWoody” banner and the Home tab when one is on the blog’s front page. (Follow the yellow arrows.) (Pale Moon browser in Windows 7.)

Now compare (dare I say “contrast”) the readability of these two areas to the way they were up until last night:

Both of those elements (banner and Home tab) feature much greater contrast and are easier to read.

Regarding the font size, it looks to me that the difference is not that the type is bigger, but that the line spacing (text lines per vertical inch) has been increased. This definitely makes for easier reading, as my eyes are then less prone to jumping to a wrong line when they get to the end of a line of text.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
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For some reason, the blue of the links in lists such as “New Posts: Last x days” now is glaringly bright. I can turn down the overall screen brightness some, but then it gets a bit too dark, so there is not quite a happy middle.

This is the same with Waterfox and with Chrome. Probably also with FF, that is joined at the hip with WF, but that I have vanished to the Nether regions, because I find it annoying.

Otherwise the new “skin” works for me.

Good job. Needs some tweaking. Tweaking need not unexpected.

 

P.S.: I just noticed that the “Delete” button has disappeared. It had been there since time immemorial, so if before submitting a comment one realized that there was something very wrong with it, one could then delete the errant comment and no trace of it would be left behind. I wonder why this button has been removed. I might have used it twice, if that, in my whole life, so far, but I think it was a good idea to have it, so as not to leave a blank space unused, or only with “Posted in Error” there, and probably creating problems elsewhere in the system. This button was available only to the one posting the comment, the very first time the comment was about to be submitted. If there and then the comment was seen by its would-be poster as being too bad, it could be deleted entirely, as if it had never existed.

Also a “leave a log of this comment” is nowhere I can see it. That was useful in case one made a major modification after submitting the comment, to let people know this was not the same comment they were thinking to respond to, but that they should first check the current version, because there is a new version.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP wrote:

P.S.: I just noticed that the “Delete” button has disappeared. It had been there since time immemorial, so if before submitting a comment one realized that there was something very wrong with it, one could then delete the errant comment and no trace of it would be left behind. I wonder why this button has been removed.

Not so. You have NEVER been able to delete your own posts.
That is for the reason that. It would destroy nesting for the whole thread.
It has always required a moderator to do so.

OscarCP wrote:

Also a “leave a log of this comment” is nowhere I can see it

It’s there. Just look.

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PK, sorry but there WAS a “Delete” button next to “Submit”, and it could be used before posting a comment for the first time.

Ah! … Very sneaky! Now, for this reply, there is a big “CANCEL” blue button! But I have not seen it for the submission I made very recently, answering to no one, putting something of my own forth for the first time.

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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There’s some options hiding under the arrow key of publish and also the keep a log of this edit is just lower down the page.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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“Cancel” has been there, not “Delete.”
It applied to an unposted reply. You could never delete your posted/submitted Reply.

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It honestly is exactly the same color as the old forum. The developer checked the CSS/color number thing and it truly is exactly the same as it was.  Because the lines are farther apart it makes it give contrast more.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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