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TJ09

Reducing the number of site skins

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I use the 60's skin just because the background is lighter, the default would be okay but it's just a bit too tan/pinkish for my old eyes to get a really good contrast. The sprites and the writing just don't look as sharp and crisp against the default.

Maybe the default could be tweaked a little lighter?

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Interesting.. good to know that they do plan to fix it. Unfortunately, the current version for me is still 31, so the fix is 2 versions away.

huh, I appear to have 33. o3o Though, to be fair I'm on Firefox Aurora, which is all "experimental". I think I'm essentially getting what will be a new Firefox version a little early to beta test it. (and yes I do provide feedback from time to time)

 

In,the long run, different skins dont add much to the experience.

All we ever need is two skins: light and dark. Both functioning correctly, with compliance to wcag would be perfect.

Opinion. Skins add very much to the experience for me! I would NOT be satisfied with only two skins, generic light (probably similar or the same as the current default) and generic dark. Just because a skin is dark doesn't mean I'll like it. I like certain themes way better than others and dark skins can look just as tacky as any other.

 

Yes, if I don't like any of the skins it does affect whether I really want to play or not. I really like the sites I'm on to be aesthetically pleasing.

 

If we really did go down to only the two skins, I really hope there would be a way for users to create their own skin for their use only! (and others if they could give them a code or something) Or even just submitting extra skins in general that were really really popular.

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Hmmmm... maybe a skin that allowed us to choose our own colors?

 

Set up a nice generic layout or maybe two; one with buttons across like the default and another with the vertical button layout. Then give us a choice of background color, the color for the center section (what is currently the paper layer on the default), and a choice of text color.

 

Mine own choice would be..

Background #004000

Center section #E7FFE7

Text color #004000

.. which are the colors I use on my personal website. The pastel green looks very nice with our current sprites. Example: http://lady_cin.tripod.com/dcExtras/compRadiant.htm That's a comparison chart I created for the Holiday Dragon Breeding Project.. it's how we choose which dragon looks best with the newest holiday dragon. I haven't had any complaints about color or contrast (at least none so far).

 

Anyway, I think giving folk the option to choose their own colors to use with a few generic layouts might be the best opetion for everyone.

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You can achieve custom coloring and styling on a per-person basis with an addon like GreaseMonkey.

 

There's way too many colors (moreover, used in way too many places) to have "pick your own" be officially supported.

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You can achieve custom coloring and styling on a per-person basis with an addon like GreaseMonkey.

i'd rather use "stylish".

 

that aside, @eef:

thats not just a simple opinion of mine, but experience.

 

It has been proven time and again, that the vast majority of users does not need additional skins, as long as they can get/work around

  • visibility problems
  • very light/very dark screens
  • long loading times
by using the defaults.

 

would they be nice? yes. are they necessary? absolutely not.

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It looks like the bug will finally be fixed in Firefox 33.

 

So there's that.

well, IF that gets fixed, I have no real preference- although a light blue background is nice on the eyes- which is why I use it on forum--

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that aside, @eef:

thats not just a simple opinion of mine, but experience.

 

It has been proven time and again, that the vast majority of users does not need additional skins, as long as they can get/work around

  • visibility problems
  • very light/very dark screens
  • long loading times
by using the defaults.

 

would they be nice? yes. are they necessary? absolutely not.

No, they're not needed, but you mentioned them not adding much to the experience, which imo, isn't true. So yes it's opinion.

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Just saying that I mainly use the St. Patrick's Day skin since the colours of it are easy on the eye and display lineages quite nicely and therefore I would really miss it. I really don't care about the other skins since most of them make my eyes water but I agree that at least one dark skin should stay for those who have problems with lighter skins.

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I use the default skin.

I think that the current skins are very different from the standard one. Maybe you could keep the two most use in this moment + the Dino Cave and add a new one very similar to the default, but with dark colors.

Actually this game is based on a Medieval setting and generally dragons are related with an old Fantasy. That's why I don't like the Portal and Portal 2 skins, Blackout and 1960. St Patrick day is fun but still I don't see any connection with a fantasy dragon world.

The Dino cave should stay because it is a wonderful end of an April joke and it's well done, there are actually Dinos in cave. It matches perfectly the game.

For example I image that the game's background implies that each user is a wizard, a traveler or an adventurer and they record the dragon infos on their scrolls.

I would like to see skins more related to the game and the fantasy mediaval settings, such dark red and black scroll of an evil warlock OR something similar to a map, with compass and lines. I would keep maximum 4-5 different skins.

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Maybe if I knew how to use Grease Monkey for something like that, lol.. but I don't. The only thing my GM does is run CloseIt and SnapLinks.. and I barely know how to adjust CloseIt to add new IRLs to the close list. Other than that I know VERY basic HTML and VERY, VERY basic CSS to do my website. I'm better with hardware than software. *shrug*

 

Anyway.. I'll be happy when FF fixes the long page problem, but I'm fine with the default skin. Do whatever you want to do with the others.

 

Otherwise, I'll just be waiting for you to add custom sorting that puts dragons into different viewable groups (aka tabs or custom pages).

Edited by Cinnamin Draconna

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thats why you should use "stylish", cinnamin.

 

it basically lets you add your own CSS to the page css, overriding it as necessary.

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I use the Dino cave skin primarily because I love purple. Will it's disappearance make me quit DC, no. I like having the options of other skins though. =)

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I only ever use the default. I've looked at the others and just like the way my dragons look on the default best. So I wouldn't be at all averse to some of the other skins being removed.

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I use Firefox (and certainly not the latest version) and display 500 dragons per page without any problems? I use default and the light part of the skin lasts till the bottom as it should.

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I use Firefox (and certainly not the latest version) and display 500 dragons per page without any problems? I use default and the light part of the skin lasts till the bottom as it should.

Some people never experienced the issue, for some it went away. Its an odd bug like that and seemed a bit computer dependent.

 

Cheers!

C4.

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There are others colors and stuff? LOL Guess that means I have NO problem at all if you got rid of a few.

 

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I would prefer not to erase some site skins. Others might use it. The plenty of options will satisfy almost all people who have different wants. They could just select what they want.

 

For me, I don't use any skin except the main, St. Patricks and the 1980s the one with the wood backgroumd.

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I would be extremely disappointed to see the Portal 2 (dark) skin disappear, and I've never used another skin since that one came out, though I think I tried the default one after a while and that lasted all of two seconds.

 

It's possible you could rework the Portal 2 skin to something similar, like with the same color scheme with the dark background and blue and white coloring everywhere and all that, but remove the Portal 2 part and replace it with something more generic and related to dragons or a medieval fantasy setting. It might be a way to offer a 'dark' version of the cave and making it more appealing to people who don't know what Portal is or who don't like it and without completely ruining/removing my favorite skin.

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thats why you should use "stylish", cinnamin.

 

it basically lets you add your own CSS to the page css, overriding it as necessary.

There are people there that have no idea how stylish or CSS works tongue.gif

 

*Like me. No idea.*

 

I just play with page styles turned off, since the backgrounds tend to break on FF for me.

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I usually play on an iPad so I don't actually use any skins except the default. I do like the Blackout, though. It's just that I'm not used to all the options on the right and also:

Blackout seems to be a little too boundary-less.

~

Imo, it's easier for me to read with some sort of gray background that's not too dark or too light. tongue.gif

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Honestly I think that maybe the current skins should be streamlined more to where they don't vary so much outside of colors and images. Have basically most of them oriented either like Portal 2 or default, and then the last like Blackout, but otherwise make it so they all have the same spacing, same fonts/font sizes, same image sizes, etc.

 

I really don't know how it is looking at them, but for the most part they seem to already have that, but maybe not quite perfectly? The whole reason for this is so that you really only have to test one of each type, and maybe just check with mods or something using different skins to make sure whatever new feature doesn't cause eye-bleed (which probably wouldn't really happen anyway unless it's specifically some sort of image or whatever).

 

I think there are too many users against removing certain skins to really get rid of any of them, so in the end I can only try to offer suggestions to simplify testing different skins in other ways. :\ I understand wanting to limit that much testing, though! Kinda comparable to me trying to keep my computer's free space under control by frequently pruning what I don't really need THAT much.

 

But really, if certain skins were removed it would definitely affect my enjoyment of the site. Heck, I didn't even upgrade to the iPhone 5/iOS 7 because I thought it looked absolutely disgusting. There were some parts of the update I really wanted, but imo the new app designs and everything look absolutely trashy and are the reason I decided not to upgrade.

 

I think I already mentioned my browser, too, but I'll say it again. While I like Safari and think it's really nice, even aesthetically, I greatly prefer Firefox's overall look a whole lot more and that's the main reason I prefer using Firefox over Safari (since Safari pretty much has access to nearly every add-on Firefox does, so that's not really the reason, and I could easily transfer bookmarks).

 

I specifically got Ponyhoof for Facebook and changed it to the Chrysalis skin because 1. I like MLP and 2. the colors look really amazing and waaaay better than the ugly regular FB colors. Not that I use FB much, anyway, but I use it more than I used to.

 

I put a lot of effort into designing my own skin for another site I was on because, while I was okay with some of the ones they had, they had the option to create your own so I did and I used that instead.

 

I dunno, maybe I'm just weird, but skins really are important to me. And not only is it just a matter of me liking a certain look, but it also allows me to feel like I can really "personalize" the experience just a little bit more. With less skins, there's less room for personalization.

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Honestly I think that maybe the current skins should be streamlined more to where they don't vary so much outside of colors and images. Have basically most of them oriented either like Portal 2 or default, and then the last like Blackout, but otherwise make it so they all have the same spacing, same fonts/font sizes, same image sizes, etc.

 

I really don't know how it is looking at them, but for the most part they seem to already have that, but maybe not quite perfectly? The whole reason for this is so that you really only have to test one of each type, and maybe just check with mods or something using different skins to make sure whatever new feature doesn't cause eye-bleed (which probably wouldn't really happen anyway unless it's specifically some sort of image or whatever).

Your post has this underlying assumption that customizing the CSS for each skin is a trivial task. The skins are architected such that CSS and images are the only differences. If I don't take the time to style new things for each skin, it'll probably work, but it'll be a pretty terrible experience. Not "caus[ing] eye-bleed" is below the bare minimum in web design.

 

I think there are too many users against removing certain skins to really get rid of any of them, so in the end I can only try to offer suggestions to simplify testing different skins in other ways. :\ I understand wanting to limit that much testing, though! Kinda comparable to me trying to keep my computer's free space under control by frequently pruning what I don't really need THAT much.

Having read this entire thread I'm not sure where you get that impression. The vast majority of the replies don't include people who have attachment to specific skins. There are many people who use a non-default skin and would be upset if their choice of skin were removed, but only because there are specific needs that those skins serve (e.g. dark skin being easier to read, non-default skins to get around the FF background bug). There's no reason those needs have to be fulfilled by those specific designs (especially the FF bug, which seems to be the most oft-cited reason, and is getting fixed in an upcoming version of FF).

 

But if, for example, I removed the Dino Cave layout, I don't think it'd leave the site particularly unusable (I don't think access to bright purple color schemes is a UX necessity).

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I like the Portal 2 skin not just because it's dark, but because it's really pretty. I haven't played Portal, as much as I'd like to start, but I like the dark background on my dragons and the aesthetically appealing layout and color design. I also like how the background is static, and the image behind is cool. I'd be very saddened if this skin was taken away.

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