XF2 testbed now available

[Wingsofjupiter]

Needs some themes to match the aesthetic of the current site and the ability to change the margins like on SB and SV since I hate the empty space on the sides. Otherwise the move to XF2 is long overdue.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Mostly the risk of the site dying to an asshole hacker with a crusader's complex.

I still remember how some asshole hackers ruined the forum of another porn site to the point of total loss via data corruption. The way they succeeded? It used phpBB as its base, and was cracked open via exploitation of its weaknesses.

XF2 is at least current and more armored against such attacks--to my knowledge.

I believe the key question would be: can XF2 options be adjusted to reflect this site's current options as close as possible? If the answer is yes, all we can do is be patient to see the end result.

Click to shrink...

You talking about Orain, or somewhere else?

 

[FTR2017]

You talking about Orain, or somewhere else?

Click to shrink...

The site named Palcomix used to have a forum, a forum based on phpBB coding.

The crusading hacker had 'issues' with most of the content from the site, and apparently was the same one responsible for other attacks on the site itself. From what I remember this asshole exploited the shit out of all the known issues with phpBB at the time and downright killed the forum's code down to the backups.

So yeah ... needless to say, the site no longer has a forum available. Only Discord ... and it will never be the same again.

 

[Belenus]

Getting a weird issue where the page scrolls back to a previous post even when not interacting with it. On Chrome mobile, only happens after opening a spoiler with images and scrolling past. Maybe 10 to 20 seconds later, the page will scroll back to the spoiler as if I clicked on an in-line link.

Otherwise this is pretty good. Normally I have a knee-jerk hatred of change, but I can see myself getting used to xf2 pretty quick. Would be nice if Blackend is available, but not a deal breaker.

 

[Doctor Heaven M.D.]

Opened it on laptop. Kind of eye-searing when it's all white and no grey, but it's already said that's not the final look.

I don't quite like the shape that posts have, I like it better when the user name and avatar are separate, but that might be just that something is new and scary. I can get over it.

The banner does look good, and it's convenient that it goes down when you scroll.

 

[Vanbers]

Needs some themes to match the aesthetic of the current site and the ability to change the margins like on SB and SV since I hate the empty space on the sides. Otherwise the move to XF2 is long overdue.

Click to shrink...

Jesus christ, THIS.

The margins make the feel of the site so utterly garbage for me. Like 2-3 inches on either side of my screen of just blank space, it's awful.

I don't quite like the shape that posts have, I like it better when the user name and avatar are separate, but that might be just that something is new and scary. I can get over it.

Click to shrink...

This too, but yeah, that one's mostly just my opinion. The margins thing is more of an immediate "This is genuinely awful" thing.

Overall, it feels a lot like SV, which is just overall a bad vibe, but something I could probably get used to, with enough time, I guess. I'd prefer if Dark Responsive (Green) was there too, but that's just a personal thing since it's what my caveman brain is used to seeing.

Except the margins thing, the margins make things genuinely shit and borderline unusable. It's something that 100% needs to be addressed, either by making them automatically change depending on screen size or giving users the option to set margin width themselves.

 

[Kinematics]

I can get NetTally running on the new forum. I don't think there's any point in releasing it right now, but I'll try to make sure the code upgrade (which has been happening slowly) gets to a releasable stage by the time XF2 rolls out.

 

[Astoria_Varanus]

One part of the current QQ that I enjoy, and that I hope will be carried over is the scrolling system for threadmarks. In the current system, opening a threadmarks window allows the used to then immediately scroll through a list of all the threadmarks in the the current thread.

Spoiler

https://imgur.com/1nfCQej

In XF2, opening a threadmarks window produces a similar but noticeably different window. Instead of having a scrolling window, it has a short list of threadmarks that one must then expand by pressing an ellipsis. And if the list of threadmarks is too long? You have to press another, and another, and another.

Spoiler

https://imgur.com/a/JhzhWpS

I don't know if this is something that you can change, and I don't know how one would go about making such a change, but I personally find the former to be the far superior option. The longer a thread gets, the more you have to work to find a threadmark, and given how long some stories on here can get, it quickly becomes an absolute pain to find specific chapters in long running stories.


Um. Sorry if this comes off as a little bit rant-ish? I do understand that this may not be something that the site creators have any control over, but it is something that I have vastly prefered to the system present on sites that use XF2.

Edit: as it wasn't mentioned, I do primarily use QQ on a mobile platform, so I do not know how it may differ on a wider scale screen.

 

[tacobowl8]

Jesus christ, THIS.

The margins make the feel of the site so utterly garbage for me. Like 2-3 inches on either side of my screen of just blank space, it's awful.



This too, but yeah, that one's mostly just my opinion. The margins thing is more of an immediate "This is genuinely awful" thing.

Overall, it feels a lot like SV, which is just overall a bad vibe, but something I could probably get used to, with enough time, I guess. I'd prefer if Dark Responsive (Green) was there too, but that's just a personal thing since it's what my caveman brain is used to seeing.

Except the margins thing, the margins make things genuinely shit and borderline unusable. It's something that 100% needs to be addressed, either by making them automatically change depending on screen size or giving users the option to set margin width themselves.

Click to shrink...

Weird, I'm not seeing any margin issues on non-mobile browser (chrome)

Spoiler: screenshot

What are you using to view it?

 

[Generic_Generica]

Few things.

1) The logo doesn't look like it scaled properly on my screen. It's just smushed into the corner. There are a lot of images that got kinda futzed up.
2) My avvie absolutely did not transition properly. The testbed's still got my old short-haired Mash avvie, not the long-haired version I'm using right now.
3) The default margins are absolute dogshit. If there's a way to make them automatically fill your screen without having to fiddle around with the settings, that should be the number one priority, because 2-3 inches of dead space on each side is horrid.
4) Tags showing up for thread alerts is a weird, weird addition. I'm ambivalent but honestly, I feel like there's enough clutter scrolling through alerts without having to worry about... That.
5) If there's a way to make the default text editor display more options by default, I'm all for that. It doesn't have less stuff than the current text editor, but a lot of what it does have is hidden behind nested menus, which feel terrible to use if you're posting on mobile.
6) The testbed's showing when I'm online below my avvie even though I specifically set that shit to not show in the privacy settings. Not sure if only I can see that, but if other people can view my online status at any given point then that totally defeats the purpose of that option.

 

[GeneralChaos]

Needs some themes to match the aesthetic of the current site and the ability to change the margins like on SB and SV since I hate the empty space on the sides. Otherwise the move to XF2 is long overdue.

Click to shrink...

Next to the Style Chooser at the bottom of each page, there's a button that lets you change the width to 95% rather than 1300px.

 

[Vanbers]

Weird, I'm not seeing any margin issues on non-mobile browser (chrome)

Click to shrink...

Firefox for life, fam.

Anyways, here:

Spoiler: Spacebattles current

Spoiler: QQ current

Spoiler: QQ XF2 To-Be-Changed-Hopefully, Arrows for emphasis

Now, I may just be missing the option, or it might not yet be implemented, but either way, it's an issue. Especially if the default margin is like 2-3 inches.

3) The default margins are absolute dogshit. If there's a way to make them automatically fill your screen without having to fiddle around with the settings, that should be the number one priority, because 2-3 inches of dead space on each side is horrid.

Click to shrink...

*NODS EMPHATICALLY*

4) Tags showing up for thread alerts is a weird, weird addition. I'm ambivalent but honestly, I feel like there's enough clutter scrolling through alerts without having to worry about... That.

Click to shrink...

Same. If at all possible, I'd prefer either that not being a thing (since most tags are AO3-level useless anyways), or just having an option in preferences to change it, imo.

Next to the Style Chooser at the bottom of each page, there's a button that lets you change the width to 95% rather than 1300px.

Click to shrink...

Not on the XF2 Testbed. There's a cogwheel that seems like it *should* give some options, but for me at least, it does nothing.

Honestly, first thing I did upon seeing the testbed site was start looking for an option to change the margins, they're *that* bad.

 

[icekid]

Wow that looks horrible.

 

[tacobowl8]

Firefox for life, fam.


Not on the XF2 Testbed. There's a cogwheel that seems like it *should* give some options, but for me at least, it does nothing.

Honestly, first thing I did upon seeing the testbed site was start looking for an option to change the margins, they're *that* bad.

Click to shrink...

This is probably the button being talked about. Does it work?

 

[Vanbers]

This is probably the button being talked about. Does it work?

Click to shrink...

Holy shit, I'm legitimately blind, lmao.Yeah, that works way better. Thanks for pointing that bit out.

I was looking at the very bottom, rather than the bottom of the content/top of the footer. Though I'd also say it might be better to have a symbol nearby, like the cogwheel on the main one (at least for DarResponse (Green) that I use), which would make it a bit easier to see for users. Maybe a good ol' |↔| or cogwheel to make it more visible. At the moment it's a bit difficult to find at a glance.

Still, though, terrible default to have. Also, after some testing, the style "Xenforo Default" doesn't seem to have that option, or at least not in the same place and easily findable, which is a bit bad.

 

[GeneralChaos]

Not on the XF2 Testbed. There's a cogwheel that seems like it *should* give some options, but for me at least, it does nothing.

Honestly, first thing I did upon seeing the testbed site was start looking for an option to change the margins, they're *that* bad.

Click to shrink...

It's working for me.

Spoiler

Edit: ninja'd

---

The round avatars are weirding me out.

 

[Alaabalanalah]

we can bookmark our fav lewd chapters now, noice

 

[Fable of the Unspoken Word]

I'm excited for this transition. I see we can filter threads by wordcount, and that's all I've ever wanted.

Click to shrink...

what do you mean? It is already available
also, can we have something separate normal alerts from threadmark alerts?

 

[Wingsofjupiter]

I can't see the "Change width" button but the margins fixed themselves so it look way better now.

 

[alethiophile]

I've just changed the page width setting, so the margin issue should be fixed.

Regarding people's avatars, this is an artifact of how we're doing the testbed -- the data folder that has avatars and such didn't get snapshotted along with the database, so it's an old version. This issue should be fixed when we do the real migration.

 

[Alaabalanalah]

are there media, apocrypha, sidestory tabs?

 

[CrossyCross]

alethiophile

First off, I would prefer if the dark mode was of a coloration similar to the current. The current XF2 dark mode is TOO MUCH dark grey. Some of the blues of the xf1 dark mode is good to break things up and make things more discernable.

So like, if possible? Make the dark mode's base color darker. But also make some portions blue rather than dark grey. Or have clearer white borderings like the current XF1. The general complaint for this portion is that a lot of it blurs together due to the same-y color and not enough delineation.
EDIT: The dark grey needs to be darker, the white text needs to be brighter, with better white lines to separate parts. I feel like a sharper contrast is better.


But that's secondary to my main complaint: the XF2 textbox is worse compared to XF1.

1) It doesn't have every option immediately available. I really do not like having to click a dropdown box if I want to see the underline or strikethrough or font options.
2) The text color? Each time you want to use it, YOU HAVE TO PICK THE COLOR AGAIN. This is a giant pain in the ass if you decide to make a character or portions of text (such as in a character sheet) have a certain color to make it stand out, requiring you to click it every damn time, rather than XF1's elegant solution of having the color option keeping the last color used for a quick click.
3) Also, it's hard to see when a font modification is activated. For example, when I use BOLDED text, the only indication is that the "B" on the editor lights up every slightly.
This is incredibly hard to notice on a quick glance. Please make it more obvious. Either making the whole button glow or have the dark highlight like XF1, or making it turn blue or some other color that's quickly easy to notice from the rest.
4) it is missing a fullscreen version. PLEASE have a fullscreen version.

I will say that at least the text editor seems to not have the rich text lag that I have on SB. The where if I'm typing very fast while quickly switching bold/italics/underline/etc. the editor lags/does not register the change, so I end up not going back to normal font or something. Which is good to know. That would have been my hugest complaint, but glad to see that's been fixed.

 

[searcher8]

There is now an open testbed of the QQ XF2 upgrade available here. You should be able to log in with your existing username and password.

This is not the final form of the XF2 version. In particular, we will be revising the styles, and the default rich-text editor is subject to changes in the implementation. Other changes may be made depending on feedback.

We welcome any input regarding the quality of the upgrade and the usability and functionality of the new site. We expect this testbed will be open for several weeks, after which we will incorporate feedback and run the final transition.

The testbed is based on a database snapshot from March 14th. It will be deleted after the final transition is made. Please post on the testbed only for testing purposes. Any content posted on the testbed will be lost.

Updates:

- The maximum page width has been set correctly for desktop browsers, fixing the excessive margins issue.

Click to shrink...

The only two issues that I can immediately think of both relate to avatars: First off, I'm not sure about everyone else here, but I'd much prefer square borders for avatars, like we're currently using in the current iteration of the site. Likewise, I'm also not a huge fan of the little, circular, green "User is Online" icon that appears just under a user's avatar, blocking out the bottom part of the avatar. I'm assuming that fixing both of those issues is relatively simple though, or at the very least isn't hard coded into XF2, since both SB and SV have square avatars, and while both of them have the "User is Online" icons over people's avatars, the way those two sites do it, as a tiny icon in the upper left corner, is significantly less irksome in my eyes.

 

[alethiophile]

A few more changes:

- Avatars have been reverted to squares, not circles.
- Online status indicator has been disabled.
- Colors in the light mode have been tweaked to be closer to the XF1 Light Responsive. Further color tweaks are likely forthcoming.
- Rich-text editor default has been changed.

Note that our XF2 install will be using a plugin I wrote to integrate (the upgraded version of) the TinyMCE editor that the current site uses, rather than the Froala that is XF2's default. The default editor is still available; this option is configurable per-user in your preferences. I particularly appreciate any feedback on the rich-text editor, since this is actually my code and I can change it how I want instead of struggling with XF2 config all the time. On the flip side, there may be actual bugs in this one.

 

[searcher8]

A few more changes:

- Avatars have been reverted to squares, not circles.
- Online status indicator has been disabled.
- Colors in the light mode have been tweaked to be closer to the XF1 Light Responsive. Further color tweaks are likely forthcoming.
- Rich-text editor default has been changed.

Note that our XF2 install will be using a plugin I wrote to integrate (the upgraded version of) the TinyMCE editor that the current site uses, rather than the Froala that is XF2's default. The default editor is still available; this option is configurable per-user in your preferences. I particularly appreciate any feedback on the rich-text editor, since this is actually my code and I can change it how I want instead of struggling with XF2 config all the time. On the flip side, there may be actual bugs in this one.

Click to shrink...

Fuck yes.

That pretty much instantly fixed the two main issues I had with the XF2 testbed.

 

[magic9mushroom]

Anyways, here:

Spoiler: Spacebattles current

Spoiler: QQ current

Spoiler: QQ XF2 To-Be-Changed-Hopefully, Arrows for emphasis

Now, I may just be missing the option, or it might not yet be implemented, but either way, it's an issue. Especially if the default margin is like 2-3 inches.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, this doesn't happen on my browser (Ungoogled Chromium). The margin is a little bigger than the XF1 one, but nothing wild like that.

what do you mean? It is already available

Click to shrink...

But if you post there, your posts will be deleted when the actual move happens. As such, the forum proper is not switched over yet; that's just a testbed to iron out problems.

 

[CrossyCross]

Aw fuck, I clicked refresh instead of new tab. Now it's harder to notice the changes...

- Avatars have been reverted to squares, not circles.

Click to shrink...

Nice. Wasn't something i was too concerned about, but nice.

- Rich-text editor default has been changed.

Click to shrink...

What was changed?

I particularly appreciate any feedback on the rich-text editor, since this is actually my code and I can change it how I want instead of struggling with XF2 config all the time. On the flip side, there may be actual bugs in this one.

Click to shrink...

Wait, what are you editing? Because the xf2 editor I was talking about is the default. 'froala' or something?

 

[alethiophile]

Wait, what are you editing? Because the xf2 editor I was talking about is the default. 'froala' or something?

Click to shrink...

There are now two options for rich-text editor: Froala, which is the XF2 default and should be similar to what's on SB/SV, and TinyMCE, which is my integration of the editor we currently use here. You can choose between these in your user preferences.

I've just set the default for users who don't select one to TinyMCE. Unless you've changed your preferences, you should now see a different rich-text editor.

 

[Fable of the Unspoken Word]

But if you post there, your posts will be deleted when the actual move happens. As such, the forum proper is not switched over yet; that's just a testbed to iron out problems.

Click to shrink...

You can already sort threads by wordcount here

 

[CrossyCross]

There are now two options for rich-text editor: Froala, which is the XF2 default and should be similar to what's on SB/SV, and TinyMCE, which is my integration of the editor we currently use here. You can choose between these in your user preferences.

Click to shrink...

Wait, if you're not modifying froala, does that mean froala doesn't have a fullscreen mode?!


Because holy shit that sucks.