Forum lay-out

[Jonas]

The Small Commonwealth has proven to be a stable organisation. It also has its HQ in Shirekeep and its Assembly on the Shirerithian forum. That's why I would propose to install a different lay-out for the Small Commonwealth-fora. Let say that it needs to be a sign that the organisation isn't ruled by, but just in, Shireroth.
I like the Shirerithian layout, but even our subdivisions have different ones. I propose that it needs to stay simple (based onj the Shirerithian one): replacing the banner by the SC-logo and probably another background.

It's just an idea, don't shoot me for it.

[Nihill Romez]

I propose we don't use blue anymore :P .

[Jonas]

Lightblue perhaps?

Like this:

[Maximilian]

As the representative of Batavia I propose orange to be the main color used

[Harvey Steffke]

Jonas, that's an amazing image. Do you have any objection to me using that in the Apollo Aurora?

[Jonas]

Jonas, that's an amazing image. Do you have any objection to me using that in the Apollo Aurora?

No, of course not! Be my guest!

If it's for your banner, I can change it a bit if you want (justtell me the size you would like).

[Ari Rahikkala]

Jonas, I like that image but I think it's too... well... big to be used on the forum.

Anyways, maybe something like this? I have no idea what to use as background so it's just black for now, and replacing all of the blueness and bubbliness would actually take some time, so, yeah, that's what I have right now. Malarbor had to go because, well, you know, what kind of an "administratively neutral" organisation would have a Shirithian deity at its top yelling about how it owns everything?

[Jonas]

That image wasn't meant as banner, more for a homepage...

I don't like the black background. The forum is too dark, making me a bit depressive.
Give it something lighter, the blue in my picture for example, or just white.

You could Malarbor be replaced with a small announcement box of the Primate, or atleast a kind welcome (possibly in Dutch and English ).

[Scott of Hyperborea]

You could Malarbor be replaced with a small announcement box of the Primate, or atleast a kind welcome (possibly in Dutch and English ).

Oooh, we totally need a monkey mascot for the "Primate Says" box

(note to Dutch and other non-English speakers: in English, the word "primate" can mean either "leader of an organization", or "a family of animals including monkeys".)

[Jonas]

You could Malarbor be replaced with a small announcement box of the Primate, or atleast a kind welcome (possibly in Dutch and English ).

Oooh, we totally need a monkey mascot for the "Primate Says" box

(note to Dutch and other non-English speakers: in English, the word "primate" can mean either "leader of an organization", or "a family of animals including monkeys".)

The same in Dutch: 'Primaat' means a family of animals including monkeys but is also 'the first' (the leader). The monkey-idea isn't bad!

[Harvey Steffke]

I've been barely restraining myself against making monkey jokes for a long time now. I'm glad we can finally come out with it.

*throws a banana*

[Arviður]

Beautiful image, Jonas! Though no Hurmu flag on it

[Jonas]

Beautiful image, Jonas! Though no Hurmu flag on it

I'm looking for that one. In fact, the flag beneath the Nelagan flag (the bird) temporary replaces the one of Hurmu. If you deliver me a flag, I can add it.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Well, one thing I could do is just replicate the whole Malarbor-style experience with...

- the Imperial Republic of Shireroth banner replaced with a SC banner, to be produced by someone competent with banners
- the Malarbor picture replaced with a monkey picture, to be found by someone competent with monkey pictures
- the Malarbor text be replaced with "The Primate Says:" with... eh, I doubt we're going to need more than a static message, but I can reproduce the forum-updateability feature for the Primate box too if it seems there will be a need. To be written by someone competent with primate messages.
- the links in the menubar replaced with... hm... say, take out the RSS, calendar and perhaps the Wiki link, and replace the "Friendly nations" in the dropbox with "Commonwealth nations", that sound good?
- the colours and background replaced with I have no idea what. I'm not happy with just ideas here - I'm terrible with colours. A mockup of what it should look like would be nice. To be composed by someone competent with forum colours

[Arviður]

Thanks!



There you go

[Jonas]

About the banner: I just made something for Aurora. I could do it if you give me the size of the image.




EDIT: will add the flag.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Well, that would be... I dunno, actually. The thing I like about the Shireroth logo is that with its transparent background and slightly irregular shape (as in "not a perfect rectangle", regardless of that the backing image is obviously rectangular), you can just toss it on the background, give it a bit of margin, and start with the page content. No muss, no fuss, works with different background colours, doesn't require wrapping the content at a certain width, and so forth. You'll also note that the same style of disconnected boxes continues right down through the page. I have no idea how to integrate a banner that doesn't pretty much look like the Shireroth logo into this design.

So, in so many words, if you want to make a banner, you can pretty much decide its width yourself, and unless you come up with a header layout that looks pretty with the banner being narrower than the content, the width of that banner will then determine the width of the content. Or, you can make one in the same style as the Shireroth logo, which will make my life easier because I can just recycle the current layout.

[Erik Mortis]

I would prefer lighter colours myself.

[Malliki Tosha]

"Primat" in Swedish means only "member of a family of animals containing monkeys". It could be used as the title for a leader, perhaps, but it would be very confusing for average Swedes.

[Erik Mortis]

So... translate it into something that means "Guy in charge."

[Jonas]

I would prefer lighter colours myself.

Indeed.

[Malliki Tosha]

Haha I just gave the Swedish example, as Jonas did for the Dutch. "Guy in charge" in Swedish is usually called "Chef", which looks pretty funny in English.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Actually, well, come to think of it, a lot of what I said there is bullshit.

Take Nelaga's forum for instance. http://bill3000.net/nelaga - it's the default subsilver2 layout plus an announcement box, and the disconnected banner doesn't look bad at all in there. I can reproduce that easily (and either a Nelaga-ish or Shireroth-ish header layout would work for me... as would anything else someone mocks up and I know how to reproduce, really). So, uh, if you just want to know how to big to make the banner, can't go wrong with 363px × 94px then, doesn't have to be precise though

[Andreas the Wise]

Couldn't you just pick any one of a million different existing styles, Ari, and then add the SC banner etc? Or is all your code perfectly integrated for the Shirithian forum and you'd prefer just changing style sheets?

I like the acid-tech series myself (I find a darker forum style is easier on the eyes when reading long posts). You could just replace the hazard sign with the SC Tree (or a banner)

[Ari Rahikkala]

No, installing a style should be easy. I was considering recommending Jonas or someone to pick one from http://www.phpbb.com/styles/db/ (or the site you linked, I guess), but the thing is, the board style and the header layout are fairly separate things and I'm more concerned with the former than the latter here. For instance, the Malarbor style itself has never really changed much over the years, but the header layout has, aplenty. And the banner has to go together with the header layout.

[Andreas the Wise]

A primate like this? Or maybe this? (I'm trying to find a more Malarbor style image of the Librarian)

[Jonas]

I hate the Acid-style. Too dark, not my kind of thing.

[Erik Mortis]

Honestly. Let's just pick one at random. It seems a bit trivial to me.

[Allot]

A primate like this? Or maybe this? (I'm trying to find a more Malarbor style image of the Librarian)

[Maximilian]

So... translate it into something that means "Guy in charge."

Alpha Monkey?