Public Commander Keen Forum

The random image code is delightfully simple and, in my experience, works fast and well: https://css-tricks.com/snippets/php/ran ... und-image/

(That's slightly different to exactly what I've used in the past, but on the surface it seems fine!)

I'm going to contact Fleex directly - I don't think the other admin I've talked to has the level of access or time (not that Fleex has that either) to even change the image to a static one. (Which is totally fine and valid, I appreciate the time of anyone who does work on this forum!)

Keening_Product wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 4:41 [...]
I'm going to contact Fleex directly - I don't think the other admin I've talked to has the level of access or time (not that Fleex has that either) to even change the image to a static one. (Which is totally fine and valid, I appreciate the time of anyone who does work on this forum!)

thanks a thousand for initiating and coordinating things. I appreciate that!

Thanks everyone for the great ideas! I've updated the header with Nisaba's yorp logo. You may need to do a hard refresh to also get the CSS that specifies header dimensions that fit the new logo.

I have some more time now that university is done, so I can look into theming (finally!) and logo randomization at some point.

Oh wow! I honestly didn't expected the logo to be changed so fast!

But I think it didn't blend well with the rest of the hi-res, hi-color forum. Looks weird. I think it may need some context instead of the blue box area.

Fantastic, thank you so much Fleex for responding so quickly! I'll reply to your dm in the morning - it's 3.40am here haha

Agree that it's a little out of place at this stage, but this is just part one of the makeover - Fleex has very kindly said they're looking into theming, and if anyone has any experience with phpBB theme work please let us know! (Assuming Fleex wants input. All this is early am assumptions haha)

If Fleex doesn't have the time to test it on the pckf, I'll install a test forum on my own server and play around with the code. (If I have the time too, that is.) Before I do that, can we get a general idea of the favourite designs? They have to fit roughly the same space (if not exactly, depending how we end up implementing this). I'm under the impression the absolute faves so far are:

- Yorp on sign (facing into the page version)
- Council member

I also quite like the "pogo" design, and Smirky is good but I think the sandwich turnaround time (stt) could be faster at the start (maybe move the first few seconds of frames to the end of the image?). If I can be so bold as to request a design too, it'd be cute to have one which is just an inchworm walking back and forth (can't say I'm a fan of the squished friends under the foot, sorry! But if that's popular I'm not going to stand in its way. It's a giant foot - it'll beat anyone at standing!)

Thanks again Fleex, will be in touch again soon with thoughts on code implementation and caching - I think I know a way around. I hope you've been enjoying uni

Fleexy wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 16:52 Thanks everyone for the great ideas! I've updated the header with Nisaba's yorp logo. You may need to do a hard refresh to also get the CSS that specifies header dimensions that fit the new logo.

I have some more time now that university is done, so I can look into theming (finally!) and logo randomization at some point.

yay! this is great. thanks Fleex for updating the header. before we go into theming I think for a start it might be a good idea to blank the background graphic of the header...

and thanks again to Keening_Product for coordinating things.
It feels really good to make this place look and feel more Keeniverse like.


here is a little something (WIP). Grimson's pixel art and MoffD's avatar inspired me to try something out:

Keening_Product wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 17:39 [...] If I can be so bold as to request a design too, it'd be cute to have one which is just an inchworm walking back and forth [...]

of course! your wish is my command. Does this match what you were looking for?



if I had one vote I'd also like to nominate Keen taking a break and reading the latest PCKF news offline:

proYorp has been unable to post because of some issues on our side, but really wanted to give input regarding the new design. proYorp asked me to post this message.

-------- proYorp wrote: --------

It theoretically shouldn't be too difficult to recreate the old skin. There's old screenshots and stuff, plus I think there are some archived pages on web.archive.org. There was also a template that I think Nisaba found and posted in the forum move thread which was similar in design.

However I also really like the idea of a totally new skin. And it would be cool if there could be a selection of themes as well, including a Mortimer theme (black and gray with red details would honestly make such a good dark theme :0 ).
I would *love* to make some design concepts for a new theme, and a logo-- but unfortunately I really don't have any way to do that right now because of all kinds of technical problems. x__x I'm so disappointed. This is right up my alley.

But luckily I already have something I can offer as a kind of starting point for ideas: the graphs I made like a year ago.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=5536
The color scheme shown here uses a very muted purple and blue (the 5 and 10 lines, barely noticeable), a couple of light gray/white colors, and saturated yellow and green. These specific shades were chosen with the design of a graph in mind so if this kind of color scheme was used it would probably need to be adjusted to fit a forum, but I think the gist of it is basically the same.

If I were to make an example in this style, I would probably use the muted purple and blue as the alternating post colors (probably tweaked so that their color is more recognizable, or maybe not if those shades are just easier to see in a bigger size), and bright but harmonious yellow and green for common important things. Or maybe something akin to the stripe at the top of the page in the old theme. But these colors should be used more sparingly and in important places, since they are brighter and more attention grabbing.

This idea is to have something that isn't generic, but also isn't harsh.
It's also based on the proportion of colors and Commander Keen's design. The most recognizable colors would definitely be the yellow and green of his helmet, so those should have a prominent place; but purple and blue are actually used proportionally more on his sprite and are also gentler colors, so they should be more common.

Whereas in the old theme, the only colors really used were green and yellow. Except that links were purple, but compared to everything else you rarely saw those. Also if green and yellow were the only colors used, there's not a lot to distinguish it from a forum only dedicated to the Green Bay Packers.

On the topic of the logo, I recommend that the text is fully unobstructed for *at least* half the time of the animation. And it should always be visible for the first bit.

also the logo is not even visible when using a mobile browser

what about this?



constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

Nisaba wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 11:21 what about this?



constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

I like it

The huge headline (PUBLIC ...) on top should be either entirely removed or shrink-ed significantly and moved to the left below the PCKF logo.

The font between the top frame and board frame is unreadable.

I'd argue that we need only a (change-able) top frame background image rather than a whole forum background. A good example could be https://www.skyscrapercity.com/ but imagine it with a random Keen (mods) backgrounds.

Roobar wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 15:39 The huge headline (PUBLIC ...) on top should be either entirely removed or shrink-ed significantly and moved to the left below the PCKF logo.

The font between the top frame and board frame is unreadable.

I'd argue that we need only a (change-able) top frame background image rather than a whole forum background. A good example could be https://www.skyscrapercity.com/ but imagine it with a random Keen (mods) backgrounds.

I propose a background of the best galaxy mod of the Keen Awards 2019, Atroxian Realm. It will be nice

Alessandro wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 11:56

Nisaba wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 11:21 what about this?



constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

I like it

If we can get alternate skins for Keen 5 and 6 that would be great!

Love Nisaba's design, though the legibility of the text between the two sections is indeed a problem. Very much like how the book graphic has been used!

Is the blue still there just because this is a quick demo, or is there a Keenish reason?

One thing we need to find out is how people access this site, as the theme needs to work across devices. I've created a poll asking what device/s people use most often: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6936

Roobar wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 15:39 [...] The font between the top frame and board frame is unreadable. [...]

Keening_Product wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 19:21 Love Nisaba's design, though the legibility of the text between the two sections is indeed a problem. Very much like how the book graphic has been used! [...] Is the blue still there just because this is a quick demo, or is there a Keenish reason?
[...]

I know, I know! this is just a quick and dirty 5 minute mockup/throw together. Changing colours won't be difficult at all after we've reached a decision about how things should look in general. the sketch above should just visualize on of many possibilities we have. somebody just has to start proposing something, right? otherwise we end up discussion and none will ever happen...

Roobar wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 15:39 I'd argue that we need only a (change-able) top frame background image rather than a whole forum background. A good example could be https://www.skyscrapercity.com/ but imagine it with a random Keen (mods) backgrounds.

sounds reasonable to me. let's see what the rest of the gang has to say about this.

RoboBlue wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 18:46 If we can get alternate skins for Keen 5 and 6 that would be great!

sure thing! I could also come up with mod related elements for the "Release Forum" and stuff like that. but first up, we should decide as a community which route to take.

Keening_Product wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 19:21 [...] Very much like how the book graphic has been used!

yeah, me too. I think we should add small things like this as little eye-candies

Wow, new logo and colours already! This is neat.

Nisaba wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 20:02

Roobar wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 15:39 I'd argue that we need only a (change-able) top frame background image rather than a whole forum background. A good example could be https://www.skyscrapercity.com/ but imagine it with a random Keen (mods) backgrounds.

sounds reasonable to me. let's see what the rest of the gang has to say about this.

I agree with Roobar, I like this idea!

Nisaba wrote: ↑Thu May 28, 2020 20:02

RoboBlue
If we can get alternate skins for Keen 5 and 6 that would be great!

sure thing! I could also come up with mod related elements for the "Release Forum" and stuff like that. but first up, we should decide as a community which route to take.

This also would be cool