Shit is fixed... sort of

[Fluffy Cocaine]

Alright, a whole bunch of SMF drama went down today.

To give you all a basic synopsis without making this too long: shit broke > I tried to fix > I upgraded forum > upgrading forum broke theme > I tried to fix theme > theme was found to be unfixable > GF and I talked about it and resolved that since the SMF install we had was such a mess, it would be advisable to do a fresh install and transplant database > I wrestled with database transplant for 45 minutes before finding out that it was smf_themes that was causing all of the problems > now.

Everything should be in perfect working order at the moment.

The relevant part of this, however, is the "theme was found to be unfixable" part. Simple Machines' developers really like to change shit like variables randomly even when there's seemingly no benefit. As a result, more than half of the variables defined in the Orbality theme are wrong, meaning that fixing it would be a multi-week game of cat-and-mouse and there's no way I'm putting that much effort into a theme that lacks most of the features of ~modern~ SMF anyway.

We have two options:

1 - We can remain with what you're seeing now, which is the new SMF default theme. I think it's pretty sexy, but it's generic, a lot of other forums use it, and it's definitely not what you're used to.

2 - I can make something that looks kind of like the Orbality theme we had, while trying to keep 90% of my edits to specifically CSS files (editing actual template files is where you run into compatibility issues...), which is certainly doable and the final product would support more modern features like the toggled menus when you hover over a navigation bar link, but I'm really not eager to do it, because it's going to be a pain in the ass (SMF, if you can believe it, has made it even more difficult to edit your own themes -- now, instead of one centralized CSS file, there are ~15 CSS files in a CSS folder that you have to edit, too! :D:D) and I'm not sure there's much point in it anyway. I'm definitely not going to do it unless there's high demand for it.

Send all complaints about your lost time on Orbital to Cardinal; he broke it.

(I also think I should point out that I've been given temporary admin just to resolve these technical issues. Once we know everyone can log in and post fine I'm going back to regular member, don't panic)

[Cardinal]

[Fluffy Cocaine]

Not my fault you break everything 

[Snoggums]

Eff you Cardinal. ;-;

Personally, I like the old Aurality theme. It just feels weird without it, but we've made such transitions before, and it doesn't really matter at all. :x

[Jake]

I'm just so glad it wasn't me :3

[Cythrosi]

Sadly this was bound to happen eventually.  We were pretty behind in updates. :x

[Alex]

I don't mind that much! I definitely wouldn't ask you to put that much time in, at least.

[Clyde]

I really miss the old smilies for one.

The kissing one just isn't the same... 

What the hell is that?!

Anyways, we could either try to rebuild the old theme, or make a half-assed new one.  Both of those would appeal to me.  However, I guess it depends on whether you guys are up for all that work.  I'd enjoy it.  But, I feel greedy wanting a new or fixed theme.

[Fluffy Cocaine]

Anyways, we could either try to rebuild the old theme, or make a half-assed new one.  Both of those would appeal to me.  However, I guess it depends on whether you guys are up for all that work.  I'd enjoy it.  But, I feel greedy wanting a new or fixed theme.

I have absolutely no problem with contributing to work on a new theme that resembled the old one if it was a group project. But I'm not sure how familiar the others on this forum are with SMF (I know GF knows his way around with what he's done for Hadaway, Rosti's general web knowledge may translate into SMF knowledge, I think Alex knows some) and if I'm the only one who can do it, I am very reluctant to put 15-20 hours of frustrating, hair-pull-inducing work on a theme that's probably going to break the moment 2.0 RC4/2.0 final comes out. I'm normally very charitable when it comes to these things, but I wouldn't call SMF coding enjoyable if they paid me.

[Alex]

I knew a bit at one point. If we're going to do this, I'm willing to take some time to learn a bit more.

[Rosti LFC]

If you guys really wanted a new theme, I'd help out, but personally I wouldn't bother otherwise. Mostly because I don't see the point. I actually quite like the SMF default theme. Sure, it's generic, but I don't mind the look, it works, and I'd quite probably use it anyway instead of any new theme that got made. It's not like we're trying to impress potential members and show that we're ~unique~ any more, so it's only worth the hassle if people really want it.

Even if you guys do want me to help, I won't be able to do anything for about four weeks anyway, because I don't really have the free time while I've got my work experience, and then I'll have the Reading Festival the weekend after I finish.

Emoticons are different though. I'll have a go this evening and restoring the old ones, and also adding a selection of the various new ones that I suggested a few months back. Because if nobody else uses them then I at least will, so in my eyes it's at least worth the half-hour or whatever it'll take me to do it tonight. These new ones suck balls, and I've been meaning to add some for ages, so this gives me an excuse to finally get around to it.
If anyone has betch.png and the other custom ones, then I'll upload them too if you can give me them. Unless they're already working and I just can't se them because lolIE6 (speaking of which, it's not showing OS and web browser under the user info on the left any more). Or if they're on the server already I'll find them, but obviously I can't access the ACP from work to have a look.

[Genevra]

Personally, I don't like the default theme and I would prefer a new one similar to the Orbitality theme. But, I'm not going to throw a fit if a new one isn't made. I'll probably get used to the default theme eventually anyway.

So basically, I'd prefer a new theme but I can live with the default.

[Cardinal]

Is there not an option of possibly installing other already made themes? We could do that as well, maybe?

And yeah, OS/browser isn't showing, and neither is the Steam ID field.

[Fluffy Cocaine]

restoring the old ones,

I have a full backup of Orbital right before the fresh install. I just forgot to migrate them over. Shouldn't be difficult.

and also adding a selection of the various new ones that I suggested a few months back.

uhh... wasn't the reaction to that mostly negative? :x I thought the reason you didn't do that was because pretty much everyone said they'd be unnecessary.

If anyone has betch.png and the other custom ones, then I'll upload them too if you can give me them. Unless they're already working and I just can't se them because lolIE6 (speaking of which, it's not showing OS and web browser under the user info on the left any more). Or if they're on the server already I'll find them, but obviously I can't access the ACP from work to have a look.

The OS and web browser plugin is an issue. It won't install properly for whatever reason. It doesn't really have any particular use, though, so I'm not really bothered, although I can just watch for updates and see if those work.

Cardinal: Steam ID field wasn't readded although the data should still be in the database. I don't know why that didn't get added automatically, actually... :x

[Rosti LFC]

The reaction was only negative in terms of replacing. And half the people couldn't see them when I suggested them anyway.

Currently on the Steam ID issue. It's at least back in profile fields.

[Fluffy Cocaine]

The reaction was only negative in terms of replacing. And half the people couldn't see them when I suggested them anyway.

Yeah, but I remember that almost all of the people who could see them either didn't care or thought they were unnecessary. :x I dunno, I guess it doesn't really matter. If you really wanted to, you could just link to the images every time and treat them like they were smilies, so it's not like there's any real benefit in arguing against it.

Also: What are you guys referring to when you say the "new" ones? Half of the smilies I'm seeing are kind of glossy ones that remind me of MSN smilies, and the other half are the old old ones.

[Rosti LFC]

If you're seeing old ones, then it's just a cache thing. They're all like the glossy MSN smileys, except they're not that glossy.

[Fluffy Cocaine]

The four custom smilies that were in the Orbital database before the fresh install are readded now.

[Rosti LFC]

Last.fm, Skype and Steam ID are all now in profiles. And I've faffed and gotten them to appear under avatars as shiny icons with a mouse-over instead of plain text.

[Fluffy Cocaine]

The old smilies we all have grown attached to are now restored and have been set as the default. However, I have also given you the gift of choice, since I thought that was a nice compromise. You can choose between the current ones, the glossy ones new to 2.0 RC3, a smiley set called "Aaron" which has really small minimalistic smileys that I really like, or "Akhyne" which has glossy ones similar to the 2.0 RC3 ones. You choose in Profile > Look and Layout Preferences.


I don't know when we got this, but I definitely never noticed it before: