Are you a coder?  Would you understand a more detailed explanation?

The important bit is that the problem will go away once we are all using the new interface :)  In other words, it is a short term issue that we have to put up with for a little while.

In reply to PomposLantern (msg # 783):

There's information above in this thread regarding the issue starting in msg# 547.

Check #552 to answer your question about why editing on the responsive site fixes the issue.

I am a web designer with coding knowledge, though I use modern site builders like wordpress so I don't have to code sites from scratch for specifically these reasons. I think I figured out what is happening to my posts and feel a little less crazy now, so thank you for pointing me in the right direction.

I often copy and paste posts from word doc programs or discord. These programs auto correct specific punctuation characters into condensed alt code. Jase mentioned alt codes might be displayed differently on different browsers, but I checked on multiple and that was not the case for me. The character set clash was specifically happening depending on which text box I published these alt codes through.

If you publish alt codes on old site without the updated html/character set, new site displays them as spaces. And if you publish alt codes on the new site, old site displays the weird characters and symbols mentioned.

So that seems to be the issue I'm experiencing. The down side is the only fix is definatly going back and manually retyping any alt codes published via the old site. :/ Either way, I appreciate the help!
This message was last edited by the user at 18:04, Sat 16 Dec 2023.

Everything should work on the responsive site, old one will have issues with posts make in responsive.  This is due to the need to switch to utf8 for encoding, it's the new standard for web but it does cause issue when switching between that and the old (a Latin character set).

I hacked in a Latin to utf8 routine for responsive so anything on that should look fine, if not send me an rMail with a link and I can take a look.

Back to "notice" - I think I'll switch it back to standard colouring and put in some other emphasis.  Colouring just doesn't fit with most of the themes and I just can't be bothered customising all themes for a single instance, especially when it's already got two things indicating it is a notice.

Thanks a lot, jase! My eyes really appreciate that.

Maybe 'NOTICE:'? Or 'Notice:'? Or even '*Notice:'? Or some combination. The asterisk in particular might work for those that need that little extra visual nudge to separate Notice threads from regular threads, because it would have the effect of bumping everything slightly to the right.

so? in all my games i run, i suggested  the payers go to the   responsive  site   today ( 20th). I wasn't a  fan  0f the layout? I thought the old one was perfect.

 but.. i figured  i  get used to it...i started  playing  with the preferences  and  i am using   'Dark green"..Man! what a difference. The all  balck back round make s the letters stand out. the  green is 'lush'... i went through all the colors and    all the  Dark  Colors   have the same effect. I went to my  h9ome page, it it looks 100% better  with dark backround , and whatever  colors you choose. so?  I am feeling alot  better now, I just have to get used to the GM tools  and   some of the 'tweak' parks, as where to find them.

 i tend to tell new folks to use the  customizable search engine , so i have to remember where that  is   when i post to them

  so?  In closing...'i'm all better now'

Not sure if there have been any tweaks lately, but I got some weirdness today that I've never experienced before.

A few of my games that I had been looking at on my mobile were flagging new posts for my desktop view without actually having new posts...which isn't anything new, but what's weird today is that the new message indicator flag on my desktop view was NOT going away when I hit 'Mark All As Read' (I did this for pms as well, just to cover my bases).

Hitting 'Mark All As Read' on the mobile DID make the indicator on my desktop go away.

I know that the false flag thing is pretty common when going between devices, but this is the first time I've ever been unable to clear them by hitting 'Mark All As Read' on the device that was -showing- them.

Hi. Belated Merry Christmas!
I.... appreciate the new site design. Is there a way  to go back to the original one? Like an old.rpol.net?

One thing that is missing for me with the new design, is that it's not as easy to read at a glance what system new game postings are in, which I used to do all the time with the old layout.

That's probably just as simple as some sort of text formatting to make the system section of each ad stand out a bit more.

In reply to kark2 (msg # 791):

Sorry, no.  Too many features are being added to the new site that aren't compatible with the old and I'm not willing (or able!) to maintain two completely different websites.

In reply to Dunecat (msg # 792):

Admittedly I don't frequent the wanted - players forum often but it seems simple enough to me, give yourself some time to get use to the changes to the layout and then see.

In reply to Dunecat (msg # 792):

I agree ... but then I found a long time ago, while using the old site, that I'm not interested in 95% of advertised systems anyway, so you might find it easier/quicker to do what I've been doing and use the Search for Game Advertisements on game system at the top of Wanted - Players (or the Browse/Search feature on the menu - just make sure the 'only active games requesting players' checkbox is ticked).  :>
This message was last edited by the user at 12:52, Wed 27 Dec 2023.

In reply to jase (msg # 793):

With regards to the layout, would it be possible to shift a few columns around under Preferences? I'd like for the post count to be close to the game name, but i can imagine not everyone would feel the same way. Since we can already set up a custom forum skin i'm curious if this would also be possible in the new site setup.

I admit for me the biggest sticky issue is just how much depth each thread now uses, where before I could see all the threads on a page on well, a page.  Now I have to scroll quite a bit to see all of them.  Is it possible to compress these somewhat?  Perhaps by changing the layout of the thread details section, by putting the notice icon in line with the closed thread icon, and then perhaps shifting the most recent post information to be on the far right in it's own column?

This would perhaps allow a full 'page' of threads to be seen at the same time.  Especially as it would eliminate the entire extra line that seems to only be there because a thread might need to have both the notice and closed thread icons.

Is it possible for a user to choose to go back to the old layout? All of my players hate the new version, and I can't say I blame them. It's much less user friendly and even worse for wasting screen real estate. We would love to be able to use the old version. You know, the one we've been gaming with for nearly a decade and a half.

Short answer?  No.

However, getting back the real estate is easy.

1. Go here: https://r.rpol.net/usermodules...ile.cgi?theme=create
   
2. Load your preferred theme and click Grab them (or create your own colour scheme)
   
3. Scroll down until you find this line... maximum page width (1,000 to 2,000):
   
4. change that value to 2,000, and save.
   
5. enjoy a return to widescreen goodness.

TL;DR ... give it time to get used to the interface before hating it - and after that due consideration, please do offer up suggestions for improvements. If there are changes that can be made (and that will work with both mobile and desktop), we'll all benefit.

The longer version ...

The Notice and Closed icons don't take up any more space - they just extend into the existing white space that visually separates the threads.  And that white space is there to increase readability which is now the prime design consideration - the aim is to make it easier to read, not to fill the screen.  Since most people start to need reading glasses after age 40 and none of us are getting any younger, we're all going to appreciate readability sooner or later (I certainly do).

In that regard ... while I'm sure some games have a lot of notices and many, many active threads, in my experience most games I've ever played in have less than half a dozen notices and perhaps three or four active game threads at most - so while with the Responsive layout I see less threads on screen, I can still see all the active threads that I need/want to look at, so there's no practical difference (if I have to click once to see older, inactive threads, I can make that sacrifice).  I suggest that'll be the case for the majority of games, but I recognise and accept there'll be more scrolling for those few games that have a LOT of players in different groups (and yes, I'm currently in one such game).

Another fun comparison I just thought of - on my PC, Microsoft Outlook 365 inbox shows 44 messages in one screen (ie visible, without scrolling at all) whereas Gmail inbox shows only 19 ... yet I find Gmail sooo much easier to read.

To attract new players to RPoL (the alternative is a shrinking user base as none of us are getting younger, remember), then the fantastic functionality isn't enough - we need an interface that attracts them.  Google 'mobile vs desktop usage' and you'll see that mobile is now more widely used than desktop, so the interface must support both.  The old site didn't ... welcome to Responsive.

Disclaimer - I loved the old site layout.  I've been on RPoL from the start, and on the old site I knew where to find everything I needed, intuitively.  Up till yesterday I've only ever used Responsive for testing & error checking.

BUT even after only one day the new site is growing on me already.  Sure, the Cast List and other menu items are all in the 'wrong' places, but that's just a matter of me getting used to the new layout and I'm very sure that will happen quickly.  I've used Microsoft Word since its DOS days and every Windows iteration in between up to and including 365.  I really hated the Ribbon when it was introduced and desperately wanted my menus back ... until one day I realised I no longer noticed the difference.  :>

I can not figure out how to tell what groups players are in, now.    Before I could look at "The Cast" and it'd show, but I can't find anything that allows me to tell whom is in what group.

Groups were removed from player view per earlier discussions (starting somewhere around msg #431 in this thread).  GMs can still see a player's groups either by hovering to get the expanded view OR en masse by navigating to GM Menu | Edit Groups.

In reply to Skald (msg # 801):

When I hover over (like it says), there's still no option for me (as a GM) to see groups.    I see: rMail, Private Msg, Description, and Profile....That's it.

And on a separate issue, it also no longer shows what time for Last Login and Last Post.
This message was last edited by the user at 09:01, Thu 28 Dec 2023.

The last log in and post times are on the right hand side, level with the character name.  If you hover over the name, the dates expand to show the actual times (at least as a GM), and the Groups appear directly under the character name (above the rMail, Private Msg, Description, and Profile).

As a player at least (I'm not GMing any game), last post is seen, but last logg in column is empty in all the games I've looked at...

In reply to Lluis (msg # 804):

Last login was removed from standard player view since it could be used to determine which characters were typically controlled by a single player. The collective felt privacy was far more valued than knowing when any given individual had checked in the game.

In reply to drew0500 (msg # 805):

Thanks for the explaining.

It was useful to know who was really playing and who was likely to leave the game (and so not worth losing time trying to communicate with, mostly in games with more strategic/diplomatic component), but I understand.

Hunter ... I can see both groups and last post etc info in the games you GM -> you may have to do a deep refresh (CTRL+F5 should do it) to make sure your browser has loaded the latest and greatest version.  :>

In reply to Hunter (msg # 802):


At the risk of asking the stupid question...is there a gap between the character name and the information that you DO see?

If so, it's possible that the Group info line is rendering in the exact same color as the background of that block, and therefore making it look invisible. That's coincidentally also the same line that the GM timestamps show on. (I can't recall offhand if those two lines have different custom color settings, but just in case...)

Edit: The fact that you're seeing 'Profile' as an option definitely means you're seeing the GM view of the cast list, because that doesn't appear for players, so there's something afoot other than the game not thinking your clearance is correct.

Edit 2: I'm pretty sure that's it. I was just testing.

The clue was that you see 'rMail, Private Msg, Description, and Profile....That's it' because you should actually be seeing: Send: rMail | Private Msg | View: Description | Profile

The 'Send' and the 'View' come through in the same color setting that the Groups and timestamps do. That's 'Information Boxes, text' under the custom settings colors (in the Overall Site Settings section). The actual character names, and the 'rMail/Private Msg/Description/Profile' colors are 'Hyperlink in body content' in the same settings section.

I'm betting that your setting for the 'Information boxes, text' just happens to be the same color as your setting for 'Information boxes, default background'.
This message was last edited by the user at 13:49, Thu 28 Dec 2023.