# New look



## cute-rat

I LOVE IT!!!


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## RFAdmin

glad you like it. we had an upgrade and had to go to a new theme.


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## abbycrazed

i'll miss the green as green is my fave color, but the blue is nice. the neon green on quick reply is kind of hard for me to focus on.


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## cjshrader

is this just a graphical update or were other things updated as well?


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## lilspaz68

Is this just a surface change or has there been any other modifications to the meat of the forum? I find this forum not very user-friendly and you have to work out backward ways of getting your information. 

I am a Mod elsewhere and it seems the Mods here don't have the same powers/permissions as we do and it makes their life difficult. You have a forum where anyone who googles "rat forum" will find it, especially the trolls.
They are doing a fantastic job with the tools they have but it must be **** when the trolls hit here.


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## cjshrader

Let me also add, if there is any way you can disable/lower the sensitivity of this "flood protection" I'd appreciate it. I like to open in tabs the posts I'm going to read, then read them, but now I just get this flooding message on half the tabs.


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## chevalrose

cjshrader said:


> Let me also add, if there is any way you can disable/lower the sensitivity of this "flood protection" I'd appreciate it. I like to open in tabs the posts I'm going to read, then read them, but now I just get this flooding message on half the tabs.


I almost got banned because I refreshed the page thinking it was going to tell me "5 more seconds" or something...but it just kept adding more time! 

Otherwise the new look is good. More...sleek?


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## BlueSkyy

I like the new look but my avatar will have to change, the green doesn't match now


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## mopydream44

WOW talk about a change! Very sleek, awesome color choices! 

at the risk of sounding like a total geek (lol ehh why try to hide it) I was cleaning my glasses when I loaded the forum, and I thought I was just seeing things but it didn't go away when I put them back on, so I thought I might be going crazy esp because I couldn't find the thread about it right away!!! 

LOL awesome crazy sleepy moment for me! Oh, and I'm on vacation, so I can sleep till 10 .


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## SamAnthrax

oooh i like it. !


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## twitch

doesn't look too bad, though very noob for a forum that is over 2 years old. but i'm really not a fan of its functioning.


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## ration1802

It's quite .. blue. lol

And for some reason mine is lagging like a mother every time I make a post?

*prepares for lag*


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## madeittothemoon

cjshrader said:


> Let me also add, if there is any way you can disable/lower the sensitivity of this "flood protection" I'd appreciate it. I like to open in tabs the posts I'm going to read, then read them, but now I just get this flooding message on half the tabs.


I've been having the same problem


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## Punk-Kay

I like the new colour, and I don't seem to be having the problems when posting? Wonder why some are?


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## AceYourFace

Wow so I just logged on to the forum here at work the new colors surprised me a bit. It's certainly different. Will take some getting used to. Looks good though. And I noticed the new photo slide show at the bottom there. Looks good guys keep up the good work.


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## mopydream44

I was having a bit of trouble earlier today but I just figured they are still working on the glitches. Also, I went into my inbox, and it took me a while to figure out how to get back on the forums!


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## Mana

It's an interesting change, although I'm not a fan of blue XD

I don't like what happened to the poor rattie in the picture on the top though.. his nose and ears are greenish-yellow :?


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## Halokitty

It's very.. uhnm.. bright.


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## Kathleen

I hope no one minds if I share my honest opinion... it isn't meant to offend. Disclaimer!

I like the coolness of the blue but the bright green and red touches make it look really tacky. I'm not sure why but it seems even more "amateur" a layout than the previous one. The banner looks like a quick, grainy Paint image. As the first thing that catches a potential member's eye, it would do much better to have a larger, prettier and generally more eye-catching banner. Unless there's some sort of limit that's preventing it from being larger and higher-quality?

On that note, everything seems to be working (for me) and that's what counts. And the forum has a great member base so it's not like it desperately has to attract more to sustain itself. Also, the layout won't deter me or anything. The content here is much more important than the appearance.

I wish I knew more about layouts and skinning so I could help make it look more streamlined and customized. I feel like a few other changes could really make it look a lot better - and easier to use.

If anyone was interested, I could try my hand at a different banner? Just for kicks?


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## phaidraft

I love the slideshow at the bottom.

I don't love that I keep getting the flooding notice when I use tabs.


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## cjshrader

samanthrax has been banned due to the flooding rules. I think they should probably be removed entirely or something, because the way they are now doesn't make sense.


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## bmwing01

OMG it's blue!! yay!


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## abbycrazed

Just out of curiosity, what are the flooding rules? twice today I've been warned of flooding. when i was just switching pages..


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## ration1802

I have no idea abby, I'm not sure of the specifics of this update. Hopefully ratman can sort it though. The issue has been bought to his attention now


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## cjshrader

Go to three pages quickly (Like opening three posts in their own tab) and you will see the Flooding message on the third. Go to 5 or 6 pages quickly and you'll be banned.

If you don't open a bunch of posts quickly then you have nothing to worry about.


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## abbycrazed

I didn't open a bunch of posts. I never have more than two tabs open at a time. It happens usually if I read through a post quickly then try to return to the forum index, it accuses me of flooding.


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## chevalrose

Yeah same here. If I browse a couple of posts too quickly...it yells at me :-(


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## Vixie

My laptop was totally banned! I haven't even been on here today, what's up with that!?!?


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## phaidraft

I ALWAYS use tabs. I usually have about 10 open at any one time.


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## Forensic

The flooding sensitivity has been altered, hopefully that fixes that problem, not certain if flood bans have been lifted yet or not, though.


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## KayRatz

that was a really stupid thing to do. How can you flood by LOOKING?


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## twitch

it was to fix an issue with some recurring trolls spamming the boards. hopefully everything is fixed now though


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## Forensic

My guess is it would also help with 500 errors.


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## RFAdmin

the main changes to the site are behind the scenes. like you have seen with the flooding security feature. it has been tweaked and hopefully will not cause any more problems. 

the sites logo being redone was a quickie job. we will have a better one on the future. for now we will use this blue theme that some like and others not so much


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## KayRatz

I don't really like it, looks too tacky to me... but i'll get used to it.


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## squidgee

Two quick points:

1) The new site rejects the Safari user-agent, and gives me the message "Banned for unknown user-agent" if I don't spoof Firefox or IE's user agent.

2) I don't know if it's just me, but the page width is wayyyy beyond that of my browser window. It makes posts nigh-unreadable.

Otherwise the new look is neat!


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## Mana

After giving it a day, I have to agree that the colors are a bit tacky. The shades of green and red just don't complement the blue at all. Maybe a lighter green text, with dark green folders?


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## rat_ratscal

squidgee said:


> 2) I don't know if it's just me, but the page width is wayyyy beyond that of my browser window. It makes posts nigh-unreadable.


same...it's been driving me a bit crazy and makes things hard to find, when im replying to a thread, i have to type my message and go to the compllete other side of the page to find the submit button... >.<

other than that, i love the blue colour, got a bit of a surprise when i came to sign on the other day lol, not a huge fan of the red folders, but i'll get used to it


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## chevalrose

I haven't been having any size issues at all. I'm glad the flooding is fixed!


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## RFAdmin

same here no size issues. i have visited the site on two different computers, monitors/resolutions with no problems. whats are your monitor settings?

also this theme was chosen as a default due to the upgrade. in the future we might go to another theme.


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## Vixie

squidgee said:


> 1) The new site rejects the Safari user-agent, and gives me the message "Banned for unknown user-agent" if I don't spoof Firefox or IE's user agent.


That is what's happening to me, and I really don't want to switch browsers.


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## A1APassion

The color change is tacky & now it kind of looks like any generic forum one might stumble upon. 

The former green theme did set this site apart from the cut & paste look of the cheesy sites that are most typically found to be abandoned & out dated.

It would be wise to tweak the color theme so that it offers a unique quality that sets it apart from the others. There has to be other theme selections that could be easily switched to rather than applying the default.


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## Magpie

I believe A1APassion has a point.

I've neglected this site recently, but when tapped in the URL today the first thing that jumped to mind was "Goodness, what happened here? Did the site close down or something?!"

Of course, upon further inspection I realized it was merely an update to the colour scheme...

Is there an option anywhere that allows us to browse using the old look?


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## RFAdmin

ok we are back to the old theme. also let me know if there are still browser issues.


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## A1APassion




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## AlxBlack17

It's green again! Yay! *happydance*


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## Vixie

Green is my favorite color!


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## Kathleen

Yay!


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## SweetLittleDelilah

Yaaay!!!

I'm so slow, though...
I didn't even notice until I got on this thread, saw people saying "It's green again!" and looked. xD Lol.


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## MariHxc

glad to have the green back


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## Magpie

I never thought I'd be so happy to see the colour green.

Many thanks for changing it back for us =D


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## phaidraft

SweetLittleDelilah said:


> Yaaay!!!
> 
> I'm so slow, though...
> I didn't even notice until I got on this thread, saw people saying "It's green again!" and looked. xD Lol.


Ditto... LOL!


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## Mana

Awesome, thank you!


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## Vixie

I am curious, though, what prompted the change?


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## A1APassion

look at the the first post from Ratman... it came along as part of the upgrade

Now we just need to get the PM feature fixed


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## RFAdmin

Vixie said:


> I am curious, though, what prompted the change?


that was a software upgrade that required an updated theme.


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## MariHxc

i think that when (or if) we get a new theme, we should have a banner contest.. everyone can vote and the best one gets used up on top


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## RFAdmin

i think one day we will do that.


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## Ratty1100

...Why is is blue then? I see blue. ???


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## RFAdmin

that had to do with the theme being used with dragonflycms.org, we are using http://www.simplemachines.org/ now. i like this new blue theme. it's easy on the eyes.


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## Ratty1100

Oh, OK, I preferred the green.
There was talk about the forum being green again. Nah. I liked green. This blue and white is disturbingly light. 
I hope that eventually I will get used to it. *sigh*


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