Mobility Skin
Our newest and soon to be only Community Skin is called, "Mobility". It was put as the new Guest Skin some days ago, but after some testing we have now established it as the default Skin for the Community.
The name summarizes what it is about - you are able to view this Community properly on any device, desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone.
This is not a change we really wanted to make but Google and many others want to see websites fit Mobiles or they are not rated as high. Additionally, more of the rising tech generation really only experience the internet through a mobile device. If a Mobile User is not able to view your site within the frame of their device or it takes too long to load then they immediately go somewhere else.
This new Mobility Skin has been coded in such a way that it adapts to your Screen Size. This way Users of large screen Desktops are not hindered or limited because it also caters for Mobiles.
How Will it All Workout?
Our past Skins have all been very graphic intense but that is not an effective presentation anymore. Really, the only place graphics are mostly used are in the Role-Playing Games. You may have noticed we have not changed over the Role-playing Game Boards to the new Skin as yet - that's because we want to implement the way Role-playing Game Boards will function first. For instance, instead of each Post you make carrying a barrage of Character information it will instead show it on your own unique page. This will enable us to further help you personalize your Character without having to worry about loading times. Within each Post will still be your unique Character Avatar, but if more stats are to be seen then a button is pressed and a new page opens with the information. We will create those custom pages before changing over the Role-Playing Games Boards so nothing is lost.
Further Development
One of our other agendas with this new look is to cater for those who simply like to Read and Post. Our past Skins, as nice as they may have been to look at sometimes, were very distracting with too much going on so your eyes, especially new eyes to the site, would have been lost to the clutter. The new Skin, as you might see, is very straightforward with less graphics and faster loading times. Of course there will be bugs here and there, but we will iron it all out. Knowing that we have only one Skin to develop and update will help us serve you better than the former 16+ Skins we maintained.
Features
One big distinction that the Mobility Skin has over our past Skins is the header. All you see is the title of the page you are on and some simple menu buttons. Some of these buttons are actually buttons within a button. If you hover over "My Options" At the top right you will notice even more choices are revealed.
All the Search fields are the the very bottom of every page and you can get to it fast by simply clicking on "Search" From the top menu. The text of each page is bigger and easier to read along with colors that are easy on the eyes. What we are leaving is the Thread images, especially the mini thumbnails that highlight some Threads. The colors show by them will help you focus on where Topics are and their individual theme.
Something Isn't Right
Some pages have not chaged over yet so it might still display in the old format - we will get to those eventually. If you find anything amiss or will like to ask questions, make a complaint or what have you please use this Thread. It will also serve as an Update for what we are doing with this new look.
Amazing changes JB I can see how this will help newer members but my only question is will the Role-playing Games also have this look? I read where you'll put our character info on a separate page but I mean the actual look of the board with the Role-playing Game . If it will then I'll seriously miss the medieval theme because it helps to put me in the mood.
The look will be similar but not the same. I will bring individuality to each Role-playing Game Board, however the heavy graphics will be done away except for probably the individual Character pages. I will miss the old Themes as well more so that some of those Themes took many hours over years to establish.
At first I thought I would not get used to it but after a couple of days I realized it was actually easier and faster to use than the other look. Good job JB.
Most Default Features Changed Over
After a lot of work I've gotten the main Boards, profiles, edit functions, redirection pages and so forth changed over to the new Mobility Skin. As mentioned above the next will be the Role-playing Game Boards and a few other areas like the Arcade which will come later, because the Arcade requires Flash at a certain size it may not make sense to change it over, I will see. All feedback welcomed on the new look and functionality.