New look

Hi everyone,

Every few years I refresh the website look and functionality, starting with our forums, and occasionally try new things. Over the last six weeks I have updated the forum software to the latest version, made some improvements (https & server tweaks) and set up a new look theme which you see now. Most of our plugins remain or have been replaced with better versions. To summarise:

* Responsive layout for mobile and tablets should be much better, it is a different layout to the previous theme in terms of the mobile view but    much tidier.
* Profile images
* Bigger Avatars - new size for avatars is up to 100 pixels, + new avatars in gallery
* Default Monogram style avatars for those without
* Profile cover images for Heros (subscribers) - will be coming soon, the setting is disabled at the moment
* Added embedded media links from social and news networks, which you've probably already noticed (Reddit, etc)
* Likes, mentions and alerts remain
* Profile Setting to disable Ad Personalisation (in Look/Layout settings).

Please let me know if anything seems to be odd or not working. You may need to update settings in your Profile.
https://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?action=profile;area=theme

I have a few new features on the roadmap this year, such as Social Groups, and a companion chat/voice message server (subscribers only).
I'd like to set up a beta testing group to test new features, so if anyone would like to volunteer to help, please send me a PM. 

I know I've not been around the forums much the last few years. With work and family events I've been overwhelmingly busy. The work commute (and road works) of the last two years has sapped an additional 1.5 hours of my day. However, lots of changes this year (for the better) and my schedule will have more time for my projects, including, especially UKY. There's plenty to do, some tidying up, some overdue updates/improvements, some new volunteer moderator recruitment.

Thanks to everyone who lends a hand to keep our community an excellent resource for almost TWO DECADES, you guys are amazing! I will post a re-hi topic later to re-introduce myself again, I'm a more mature and hopefully wiser version of the long ago participant.

Hi Leah 

I've only been looking at the new format for a few minutes but I've noticed a couple of things right away. I usually use the recent unread topics feature to catch up. When I clicked on recent unread topics just now, it told me there were none. Then I went to the visa section and there were two threads with new posts?

Also, when I scroll down the pages, it's really jerky.

And now the pages are taking forever to load!

I'm having the same problem as Larrabee. It simply won't load most of the time, timing out or the server can't be reached.

I'm on my mobile at home with WiFi and it doesn't want to work.

It might be better on a desktop.

When I checked the site on my phone around 5am this morning, it wasn't loading. However, since I've been on it in the last hour or so, it seems to have been working fine, both on phone and laptop .

Have only just logged on so can't really comment on any jerkiness or anything, but it did take me a minute to adjust as I was like "...hang on....this looks different.....did I click into the wrong site or something..." haha then saw this post. Appreciate you taking the time to update!

I'm getting right on now but the jerkiness is horrid, on laptop. I still had a tab open from last night and it's not doing it.

It's all fine now. Must have taken a few hours to deal with everything on the back end.

It's even working on my mobile now.

It'll take a little bit to get used to it, but I think it'll be a good thing.

I did notice yesterday on mobile that there were certain posts that just disappeared and I couldn't see but I can see them all when logged into  desktop version. Not sure if maybe that had to do with the change or if it was just an issue with my account

Just browsed a few threads and all appears to be working okay!  

I just got an email for a post I am following, when I clicked on it, it said reader view available and the whole screen looked like reading through tinted glass.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I still have jerkiness.  Does anyone else have the jerkiness? 

I'm having the same problem as Larrabee. It simply won't load most of the time, timing out or the server can't be reached.

I'm on my mobile at home with WiFi and it doesn't want to work.

It might be better on a desktop.

The server issues were unrelated, I believe it was processing end of month server logs, as I was working on something else and thought I had broken something.

I'm getting right on now but the jerkiness is horrid, on laptop. I still had a tab open from last night and it's not doing it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the jerkiness". What browser?

I've only been looking at the new format for a few minutes but I've noticed a couple of things right away. I usually use the recent unread topics feature to catch up. When I clicked on recent unread topics just now, it told me there were none. Then I went to the visa section and there were two threads with new posts?

That function shouldn't be related to the theme either, except possibly that the link it's using for the unread topics could be different, so I'll investigate the differences.

I just got an email for a post I am following, when I clicked on it, it said reader view available and the whole screen looked like reading through tinted glass.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Is the Reader View a Safari feature? I'll investigate this.

I still have jerkiness.  Does anyone else have the jerkiness? 

I'll send a PM in a sec.

I still have jerkiness.  Does anyone else have the jerkiness? 

I've added a smooth scroll plugin to try to help with this.

This is a bit what the screen looks like if I click on an email link to a response....


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This is a bit what the screen looks like if I click on an email link to a response....

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks, I see now. It doesn't look like you're logged in at that point, is there a dialogue box at the top of the page? There would be for guests, but it looks like it needs to be set fixed so it can't be scrolled past.