Nice New Look To AS!

[Checkmate]

Ahhh, the toolbar is back, with a slightly different look... nice!

The previous tool bar was lagging the forum. So I scrapped it completely and rewrite to this one.

It was never good, it was really shitty but I was being lazy, it bite me in the end though.

#fixed

 

[navig75]

The previous tool bar was lagging the forum. So I scrapped it completely and rewrite to this one.

It was never good, it was really shitty but I was being lazy, it bite me in the end though.

Thank you [MENTION=3]Checkmate[/MENTION];

 

[Leggy]

The previous tool bar was lagging the forum. So I scrapped it completely and rewrite to this one.

It was never good, it was really shitty but I was being lazy, it bite me in the end though.

#fixed

If all the time you've spent on the update counts as lazy, I can't imagine what working hard would be like. ;)

 

[Checkmate]

Here's the progress for everyone:

[progressbar-skyblue=45]Forum Redesign[/progressbar-skyblue]

Also showcasing one of the new bbcode that come with the new design. There are more to come later.

 

[pichu655889]

Here's the progress for everyone:

[progressbar-skyblue=45]Forum Redesign[/progressbar-skyblue]

Also showcasing one of the new bbcode that come with the new design. There are more to come later.

Looking forward to them ^_^

 

[Ignis]

I also like that it's wider than before, though I would personally prefer if it was wider than before, but a little narrower than it is right now.

Thing is, this is a "fluid" layout. That means it adjusts itself to the width of your screen. If you have a 1920px or a 2560px widescreen, the width may look excessive, but if you have a 1280px laptop screen, things may not feel much different than before. The previous skin had a "fixed" layout, meaning it stays at a fixed width regardless of your screen's width. The ideal width for a theme with a fixed layout would be somewhere around 1000px or less, because while it's possible to make a 1500px fixed width (for example), doing so would make it unpalatable for those with small screens, particularly laptop users. And when you make a fluid layout, it expands.

But hey, if you feel it's too wide, at least that means you have a widescreen, which is inarguably better than a small one for any other tasks and purposes!

One other excellent thing I came to think of would be the functionality to personalize the color scheme of the forum, like from this current white and bright one to a dark one. I was reminded of that when I clicked Ignis example screenshot of Imouto welcome pm from the updates thread in the first post. And it looked nice, well easy on my eyes in a dark room at least.

Checkmate's reply and the technicalities required to darken everything aside, making it possible for users to personalise the overall look and feel of the forum―and not just certain areas like their own profile pages―will be an even harder task, one that I estimate will also consume a truckload of server resources.

As a side note, the screenshot you're talking about was made during the beta phase of the forum, using a skin that if I recall correctly never made it to the public launch. It was a bit dull and looked worse than the new skin, if you ask me, and it's not just because it's dark and this one's light. (I also like dark displays on certain things; I use a dark desktop visual style myself.)

Other than that, to bad to hear about anything medical related Iggy. Hope it's just something temporary and not permanent. Reminds me how life can feel so ..unfair at times I guess.

Thanks for your concern, but it's nothing big ^^ I consider it solved for now.

But whats that picture at the front page ? Curious

If you mean the header image, it features the main character from Amairo Islenauts and Amagiri Yune, one of the heroines.

 

[setuna1279]

Nice, Checkmate. It looks so great

 

[GenKiDan]

[MENTION=2]Ignis[/MENTION]; Aih, Yes I have a 27" widescreen, (1920x1080) If only that fluid system had a brake of some sorts, like an upper limit it could stop scaling once reached.

I like the light around me either dampened or dark so watching a bright screen then sometimes is a bit searing to the eyes ^^ But I just turn down heavily on the brightness and contrast so far. Dream would be we could customize the whole Internet to some extent where nothing else is specified from the websites. (reminds me I tried to make google search black once) And wait for OLED monitors in desktop sizes for the most pleasant dark room viewing experience. I see, maybe it's because there is a lot of custom code on this site that you use ? I was once member of a site built by inexperienced people and they had that option, then I could change skin on the entire site just like we can change the top header on this one now at the bottom. I think they where just using some prebuilt forum software though.

Alright, sounds like it was coped by an admin even in an health related issue^.

~thanks for the interesting info.

Oh and [MENTION=3]Checkmate[/MENTION]; it sounds like you do coding as well ?

 

[Checkmate]

If only that fluid system had a brake of some sorts

Your browser already have a brake of some sorts, you can choose to resize your browser windows, you should split your screen into different area, so making the most of your screen area. Works the same, even better.

Oh and @Checkmate; it sounds like you do coding as well ?

If I don't, who code this then?

 

[Ignis]

I have my browser on a 1920x1080 screen myself and I think it looks good. It's just that now, at times, I tend to use line breaks before I get to the edge of a line because people's attention span may not extend all the way to the far right edge of their screen. (Users on laptops and small screens may not feel this way, though.) And like you, I also like a dim light around me (my room is also rather dim), but my monitor doesn't particularly blind me because 1) I set it to have low brightness and 2) the forum isn't predominantly white in colour, but grey, which I think is rather calming. So all is well.

And yes, there's a fair amount of custom codes utilised on the site, most of which are single-handedly taken care of by Checkmate. I'm quite a Luddite when it comes to coding. Teehee.

 

[GenKiDan]

[MENTION=3]Checkmate[/MENTION]; Oh, your right, that actually worked, after a little fiddling around first. At first it didn't work out, cause things just disappeared of the screen, I snapped the window to fill half the screen and it made me do horizontal scrolling to read the rest. Maybe it works differently on other browsers than Opera for what I know(even though they started using the chrome engine recently). But there was a certain point I could shrink it to I found out where it would work. Neat to learn that, it also had the bi-effect of making a lesser bright area with my desktop showing now on both sides. So it helped two things out at once.

I dunno, and other coder :P ~or some slaves ?
Well you got skills in that as well then I see, I just never imagined you had time, with.....all ..kinds of other stuff XJ not to mention business stuff as well.
[MENTION=2]Ignis[/MENTION]; Line brakes yes, I've found myself doing that as well already at times. I find it more comfortable to read when others do as well so I can keep the whole body of text within my field of vision. Heh you should have seen some of the pictures I took of my place with only Led lamps in different colors.(some of them ended up around here somewhere)
>< unfortunately I hardly see a difference between the white and the grey around here anyways, unless you where talking only about the background behind the text area, which would still be bright compared to the truly dark theme we had as an example and it's hidden behind.

Well I never though of you as a luddite in relation to coding thats for sure, Rather I actually imagined you to be like one of Checks primary coder or something (or maybe that was more for some of the graphical parts of the site, not sure where the idea sprung from)

Check your certainly a driven individual ! I think thats fair to say if my impressions aren't all skewed :p The way I feel, and for most of "our" kind if thats accurate of me to say, (I wouldn't know for sure) is that we might either do nothing at all, or we constantly have to push, and do something, or we end up feeling just terrible :/ ...sigh. uh Now I have to go do something.

Have a merry Christmas in advance >?< (thats my excuse for not doing too much atm wooHO! That and I got battlefield 4 yesterday)

 

[7xovr]

I love the new look of the site, feels modern looks fantastic. Keep up the great work guys.

 

[Ignis]

Thank you, thank you.

[MENTION=2]Ignis[/MENTION]; Line brakes yes, I've found myself doing that as well already at times. I find it more comfortable to read when others do as well so I can keep the whole body of text within my field of vision. Heh you should have seen some of the pictures I took of my place with only Led lamps in different colors.(some of them ended up around here somewhere)

That's a problem with using big monitors, I suppose. Also, most people (or at least I do) dislike it when they have to scroll something horizontally rather than vertically, so there's that. And my room isn't that dim―I used to turn my lights off during the night and relied only on my monitors for light source before, but before long I found out I'd get dizzy easily. I do a lot of computer-intensive work during the night, much more during the day, most of which requires me to fix my gaze at my monitors, so that's to be expected.

>< unfortunately I hardly see a difference between the white and the grey around here anyways, unless you where talking only about the background behind the text area, which would still be bright compared to the truly dark theme we had as an example and it's hidden behind.

No, I was talking about the posting area. To be fair, it is close to white (it's #fbfbfb / r251 g251 b251 whereas white is #ffffff / r255 g255 b255), but that much difference is quite apparent to me. I deal with a fair amount of graphics stuff, though, so it might be that a slight difference in colours looks more apparent to me than to those who don't dabble a lot with this kind of stuff.

Well I never though of you as a luddite in relation to coding thats for sure, Rather I actually imagined you to be like one of Checks primary coder or something (or maybe that was more for some of the graphical parts of the site, not sure where the idea sprung from)

The only coding I do is like (a very small amount of) PHP/HTML/CSS for my own personal use. But yes, you got it right―I'm primarily the graphics slave 'round here.

 

[Infamous]

hmm. if i were to have this site at 100% zoom, i'd see about 7/8th's of the pages width

 

[unownHGSS]

Probably said it somewhere before, but I love the new lay-out/skin/up-grade/whateveritscalled ^^
Hats off to everyone~

And if all this is only 45%, I can't wait to for the site to be 100% finished.

 

[pichu655889]

Would you guys be working on a mobile version for the forum? I know at the moment there is the default vBulletin mobile theme which works fine but it would be nice to have a custom A-S theme :P Don't mean to put any more stress on though the forum's already great as it is, kudos!

 

[GenKiDan]

Thank you, thank you.

That's a problem with using big monitors, I suppose. Also, most people (or at least I do) dislike it when they have to scroll something horizontally rather than vertically, so there's that. And my room isn't that dim―I used to turn my lights off during the night and relied only on my monitors for light source before, but before long I found out I'd get dizzy easily. I do a lot of computer-intensive work during the night, much more during the day, most of which requires me to fix my gaze at my monitors, so that's to be expected.

No, I was talking about the posting area. To be fair, it is close to white (it's #fbfbfb / r251 g251 b251 whereas white is #ffffff / r255 g255 b255), but that much difference is quite apparent to me. I deal with a fair amount of graphics stuff, though, so it might be that a slight difference in colours looks more apparent to me than to those who don't dabble a lot with this kind of stuff.

The only coding I do is like (a very small amount of) PHP/HTML/CSS for my own personal use. But yes, you got it right―I'm primarily the graphics slave 'round here.

Happily I don't get dizzy, but it does induce insomnia >< You probably already know that, how light helps regulates sleep and all.

I was just having a trail of thoughts that went like: oh maybe thats whats called "Offwhite">"dirty white">....

Spoiler: ....

PURE AND INNOCENT xD Wakatta !

I've previously taken a tiny interest in those 3 things myself just to get a little bit more insight into how the things I use works. Can't actually do any php at all, just know it's server side. But what other type of coding is needed around here then ? I didn't think you would need anything else than what you already mentioned.

 

[Checkmate]

Possibly, I'm still consider the option of having a mobile apps instead but we will need 500$/year to maintain the apps for android play store and an additional of 120$/year more for Apple's App Store, bringing the total cost to 620$/year

Having an apps does have more advantage: it supports tablets and phones of all size, and support push notifications - if someone send you a PM over the forum, your phone will notify you instantly without any additional battery usage.

But with our strict budget constraint, that might not happen anytime soon

 

[T-ELOS]

Possibly, I'm still consider the option of having a mobile apps instead but we will need 500$/year to maintain the apps for android play store and an additional of 120$/year more for Apple's App Store, bringing the total cost to 620$/year

Having an apps does have more advantage: it supports tablets and phones of all size, and support push notifications - if someone send you a PM over the forum, your phone will notify you instantly without any additional battery usage.

But with our strict budget constraint, that might not happen anytime soon

Can you open up an account to take donations? I'm sure a lot of people would chip in.

 

[pichu655889]

Possibly, I'm still consider the option of having a mobile apps instead but we will need 500$/year to maintain the apps for android play store and an additional of 120$/year more for Apple's App Store, bringing the total cost to 620$/year

Having an apps does have more advantage: it supports tablets and phones of all size, and support push notifications - if someone send you a PM over the forum, your phone will notify you instantly without any additional battery usage.

But with our strict budget constraint, that might not happen anytime soon

Wow, I had no idea that it would be that costly... I'll make do for now then :)
[MENTION=25661]GenKiDan[/MENTION]; I'm going to make a wild guess and say coding includes HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP... SQL..? Is that also considered or is that under PHP as well..?

And Checkmate, I just found out that when I try to multi-quote, I end up click on the post-count instead... looks like that element is overflowing out of the blue bar

 

[Checkmate]

In general, the AS Network costs about 1100$ to maintain per month. This include hardware maintenance fee but leaves no room for upgrade. We probably need atleast an addition 200$/month for hardware upgrades options every year. So we are trying to make do within strict budget.

The AS Network also consist Anime-Sharing Lossless, Anime-Sharing Translations, support service like monitoring system and some minimal software license, content distribution network, firewall/anti-ddos box and legal support. We also host other high profile site such as http://yande.re, and its associations.

Ads revenue so far only cover 15% of the cost above. I know we would have a lot more budget if I accept more ads proposals from other companies but that would mean turning AS into an adsfest, something I don't want to do.

As for donation, currently, we don't have a plan for that in the near future. Unlike other network, AS is design to be self-sustain as much as possible without relying on public support while maintaining a reasonable quality of service such as having strong infrastructure, content delivery network, premium bandwidth provider that improves page load time, anti-DDOS protection prevent downtime, and as little ads as possible.

AS staff is on voluntarily work (unpaid), I'm sure I have been working unpaid full time for AS for years.

 

[spoxxy]

If the adds only cover 15% of the cost how can AS be self sustained? Personally I think that if donations would help raise the bar of the site overall I would go for it. AS could even use the money to buy and release their own exclusive H-Games, god knows that lately with all that's going on its taking longer and longer for a game to be released in the interwebs.

 

[Will98]

This site will be self sustaining on the time, blood, sweat, tears and pages of hentai threads and cat memes.

 

[GenKiDan]

[MENTION=25661]GenKiDan[/MENTION]; I'm going to make a wild guess and say coding includes HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP... SQL..? Is that also considered or is that under PHP as well..?

And Checkmate, I just found out that when I try to multi-quote, I end up click on the post-count instead... looks like that element is overflowing out of the blue bar

Ah SQL I forgot at least. Regarding the problem you describe I've noticed that as well, now I know it's not just me. I've reported it as well.

Maybe [MENTION=3]Checkmate[/MENTION]; himself will tell us what coding language he must use ? And what's required to maintain a site like this.

 

[Ignis]

It's actually an inseparable combination. If you've ever run a site or configured a server, probably you've heard of things like LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), LNMP/LEMP (replace Apache with Nginx), WAMP (replace Linux with Windows), WIMP (replace Linux with Windows and Apache with IIS server, both of which belong to Microsoft) and so on. It's an inseparable bundle: Linux/Windows is the operating system; Apache/Nginx (among others) is the webserver; MySQL (also MariaDB, MSSQL, PostgreSQL and others) is the database; and PHP (also Perl, Python and others) is the programming language in which web content is delivered.

The standard modus operandi is that a website's software engine―e.g. our forum, a WordPress blog, a Joomla homepage and so on―is coded in PHP, delivered through Apache webserver which runs on a Linux server and stores content―such as posts, comments, user data and the like―in a MySQL database. Things like Javascript and CSS serve mainly as enhancements. For example, when you post a quick reply, your post can immediately appear without having to reload the page to see it. That's an Ajax (within which Javascript is contained) feature. Whereas CSS mainly deals with aesthetics, such as all these different colours you see on this page.

If you're interested to know more, I'm sure all the terms I mentioned have Wikipedia entries. You can start from there.

The bottom line is that it's a bit tricky to answer a "did you use PHP, SQL or Javascript to code this site?" kind of question, because like most other robust websites, it's never just one and always mix of many.