Life In 19x19

The current default theme "subsilver2" is no longer developed or supported, so there has been a discussion among the moderators and admins about switching over to the new custom theme that was started quite a while back and has been sitting idle.

To move development forward, I'm looking for some volunteers to switch over to the new theme and give comments. It's still a work in progress, and only a few screens are completed, but I'd like to start getting some feedback so that if there's major issues, they can be resolved before it's too hard to go back.

To switch themes, go to your user control panel, and select "board preferences". There should be an option on that screen to switch themes.

The theme is based on the more modern prosilver theme, so the functionality is going to be more consistent with that than the current default theme.

If you see a problem, let me know what browser, version and operating system you're using. If the whole screen looks screwed up or clunky, it may be one that I haven't really worked on extensively yet (there will be lots of these). Just noting which screen is broken is sufficient in those cases. If the screen looks mostly OK but has a few problems, you can be more specific. Screenshots are helpful if you're using a less common platform (that means you, Mac users).

The new theme will NOT support IE6, so you'll just have to join the 21st century if you're in that camp.

Looks neat in Safari in iPad. There's a float rendering problem in the UCP, but not a critical problem at all, just a slight misplacement. Will keep looking

First comments with FF 3.6.27 on Snow Leopard
- looks ok, the subtle graphics on upper right and lower left corners could be used more
- why is the area used so narrow? Now 2/3 of my display contains nothing.

I'm seeing

GD Posts: 0
L19 user ID: 0

As "default data" for any user (everyone has 0, too). Also I'd rather have View unread posts in the far left than unanswered, for quicker access. View your posts moved around, too, but can get used to that.

No likes? Don't like that.

Still "View active topics" instead of "view recent posts?" Time for a change

I think I like it alright (though I'm less sold on the whatever color that is background). Hidden sections no longer have a little box that sets them off from their surroundings, which I find a bit disorienting.

I definitely like that announcements are set off from regular posts.

- pm window is a bit misaligned
- sending pm is with "submit" and not with "send" (I don't remember how it was in subsilver2)

Up to date Chrome on Windows 7: the User Control Panel has overlapping elements and layout problems.

It's okay... not my favorite.

The first thing that hits me is that it's corny. Just something about how boxy and cartoonish everything looks. I think there's some other forum that it reminds me of: one that I don't like.

The second thing that hits me is that the colors don't go together well. Culprit one: the salmon-pinkish background and the yellow-brown banner. They just don't match. Culprit two: subsilver has subtly different shades of blue in alternating posts, which makes threads easy to read. Our new custom themes is just an unbroken sea of white posts.

But no bugs or anything, so far. Would you like us to keep using it and report as you tweak it, or can we switch back now?

(Oh, and I also don't like that you can't see who has liked a post.)

(Xubuntu O, Chrome 18.0.1025.100.14159)

Among the major screens that are not really done or only partially done:

Posting threads/replies
User control panel
PM Screens

Mostly the only parts I've done are the header/footer areas, the forum list, the thread list and viewing threads. The "hide" boxes are kinda broken too.

If you don't like it, or don't want to use it in it's half implemented state, feel free to switch back for now. It will eventually be the default, which I know won't make everyone happy, but it's not practical to support multiple themes and subsilver2 is very dated and will become increasingly broken. However, I don't have vast acres of time to work on it, so the switch-over won't be all that soon.

jts wrote:the salmon-pinkish background and the yellow-brown banner.

Interestingly, on my screen the banner is yellow-brownish (more to the brown), but so is the background, only lighter (i.e. more yellow than brown). There is absolutely nothing pinkish about the background on my screen.

The background is neither salmon nor pink. I'm working from a calibrated monitor, so if you're seeing colors like that, your monitor is WAY off. The banner is a photo of a go board, and its colors should be approximately true-to-life.

Also, If your general thought is that it's going in completely the wrong direction and that we should start from scratch, please suggest some sites or forums whose layout you like.

First, thanks to Fwiffo for doing this. ( It is no fun to do something when you know that the people who don't like it will speak up, but most of the people who do like it will say nothing. )


I find the contrast WAY too harsh. Dark-blue-almost-black against a tan/salmon background is difficult for me, and remains so even when I turn down the contrast on my monitor. The black and white stones indicating which forums have new threads are also too high contrast. They could be made smaller to minimize their distacting effect

The middle 70% of my screen is used. There is a 15% border on either side.

I see pinkish/salmon too.

@Fwiffo: are you perhaps a bit red/green colorblind? If so, you would tend to see reds as shades of yellow.

FWIW, I'm using Hardy Heron and Firefox.

Joaz Banbeck wrote:
The middle 70% of my screen is uded. There is a 15% border on either side.

Assuming uded = used, for me its roughly 32% - 36% - 32% or so. I have 2560 pixels horizontally, with taskbar taking some on the left, so roughly 2500 pixels for browser. I'd guess the area used is about 900pixels or so.