Changing community appearance

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Due to issues on some computers with displaying the new S1 comment layout, as well as eyestrain and visibility issues, we have had to switch the community to the S2 style for the comments. This means that the comments page will now look very similar to the community page.

We are in the process of finding a layout that both works with our setup and is easier on the eyes. You may notice A_B changing appearance as we adjust things, so please bear with us.

Feel free to give us feedback on the changes (please keep it to this post or to PMs and email). We will try to take suggestions into consideration, but we are somewhat limited by the layout options we need for the community.

Thank you all for your patience!

Comments

[skittlewolf.livejournal.com]

The bright/light blue on the white is really hurting my eyes. I really like the older darker layout. The color scheme is making it rather hard for me to read any comment/entry without being distracted by the glaring blue.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

How's this?

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Just want to remind anyone who may not be too keen on whatever style A_B currently is in - that you can make communities reflect whatever the style of your personal journal is.



Just click the checkbox that says 'view in own style' and the pages will refresh to match your journal layout at the time.

[breakspire.livejournal.com]

I don't see that option... is a paid feature maybe?

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

I...don't have that checkbox on my end. o_O Maybe it's a maintainers-only option? (ETA: just checked some of my own communities and it's not showing up for me on those either.)

But yeah I gotta agree with the other commenter, the brightness of this current color scheme gave me a headache within seconds.

[gearpony.livejournal.com]

I had to go through the Account link on my toolbar, and it was under the Display options:

[deejthistle.livejournal.com]

It's a tough balance. I agree with others that the S1 layout is painful, but it's also unfortunate that the entire tags list is stretching the page downward.

The current style also crushes the comments into a narrow center that could get very messy with longer comments in larger chains. Unfortunately, a LOT of LJ styles do similar. :C

EDIT: The style just switched to gives the comment/post area a bit more space.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Yup, we're working in real-time here. XD

That's one of the unfortunate choices we had to make. It was either a style that narrowed the column, or a style that put a colored bar above each comment, which made it difficult to tell comments pages from the main page.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

I actually personally prefer the tags this way. Long list, but I find it easier to search for artists compared to the big clump of text it was before.

[marlinkhylacat]

The current style also crushes the comments into a narrow center that could get very messy with longer comments in larger chains.

Somewhat like this, you mean? XD (Grayscaled to reduce filesize. But look at all that wasted blank space!)

[mistresswolf.livejournal.com]

I like having a white BG. It reminds me of most forums and I like it when forums are bright.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

agree for the comments page. KISS method is often best. Keep It Simple, Stupid. we do get a lot of people that come in for first time and making it as easy to figure out as possible is a good idea.

[everainsley]

Sadly, the style=mine only works for paid accounts (and doesn't work properly all the time if you have it turned on in your preferences anyway), but thank you for being proactive in looking for a new layout. The new comment page makes me sick unless I'm viewing on my phone, and it doesn't work right there.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Well hopefully this one is looking better for you! :)

[ocelotish]

That's odd, it worked for me just a few minutes ago on this page, even though I only have a basic. That being said I had issues with it closer to when the comment system was changed.

[unicorn-magic.livejournal.com]

I rather like this layout, for what it's worth.

Are the links at the bottom of each post a new feature? The ones that say "Before commenting, please read our Community Rules.
If you have been posted about, please read I've Been Posted on Artists_Beware, Now What?"

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Yes it is new. Its a feature that is installed in the Expressive theme set we're using. Our last one was Smooth Sailing which allowed for us to put comm updates and other important text at the top of the community page. Expressive does the same and a bit more. Unfortunately its stylization is static (what you pick is what you get) rather than the dynamic (color swapping optional AND possible) of Smooth Sailing.

[gel-wolf.livejournal.com]

for what it's worth, I much prefer this style ( although I'm apparently the only person ever who liked the updated comment system thing so.... ;w; )

But this looks much closer to the old style, and is less confusing to follow. The other one with the darker colors was harder to read and seemed to have a weird way of arranging the comments imo. x:

[emlan.livejournal.com]

This current one is looking rather good, but if you do play around more with it def keep it Light BG + Dark Text and not the other way around at least.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

It took me a while to realize that A_B is using the exact same layout I have set up for my personal journal. I kept unchecking "view in my own style" to see what you guys had changed it to, and saw nothing changed! :o!

I have to commend your tastes. C:

[shout-of-joy.livejournal.com]

I'm liking the current layout much better than things were looking yesterday!

[conigliomannaro.livejournal.com]

I use a fix to see the default comment pages like they were before (http://mintyapple.livejournal.com/785966.html#t21348398), and you can have subject lines and preview buttons back with this script (http://soph.livejournal.com/227512.html). This is something members need to get on their own computers, but it might solve the problem with people's antipathy for the new layout of default comment pages. I found those to be quite useful: you get to keep the good part of the new features while discarding the bad side of the graphics.

[four-calamities.livejournal.com]

Just a side-observation about the "style=mine" view - it is available for Plus members, but not in all styles. The "Flexible Boxes" for example can have the option, but since it's not paid, it only works from your friend's page, and only if you click on the comment / # of comments link to an entry, and not the title of the entry. You can also just type the "?style=mine" into the url bar to change it.

It isn't available for Basic members, as far as I've seen.

[sushidragon.livejournal.com]

I like this style, especially the "Before commenting.." blurb that appears below each post!

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of the huge amount of white, it might be easier to read on a darker color, but I'll get used to it!

[germanchoclates.livejournal.com]

I kinda sorta really think the whole new layout is terrible. The side bar of tags is fine. Super. It's much easier to read than having to use ctrl + F to dig it out from amongst the muck.

But the separation between posts is just...it's awful. You can hardly distinguish from one to the next as the definition just is not there. I don't know, it's just a horrid flow. It reads like a giant wall if text to me.

Then I really, really, really, really dislike the fact when I click on the journal I still have all the muck like I am scrolling through the main page. I loved the new LJ features. It read easier, IMO, and I could see what posts were new when going through them all. It just made life a lot easier. It read better both on the computer and the phone. I could just focus on the post when reading it and that was it. In the age of massive screen sizes, this layout just is sorta...good lord. Somebody posted a picture as to how theirs looked earlier and mine has even more on the sides I feel. It's going to be even worse on phones as when you double click the screen to zoom it's going to take into account the tags list and not go in all the way.

While I like the color better (vast improvement) I just greatly dislike everything else. I'm willing to live with the main page as it is, but not the posts. Sorry.