New Logo for Acorn and New icons for read forums

[markb]

Yes, I know from experience 'design by committee' doesn't work. Everyone has their own style preferences.

I truly believe in responsive design but won't be changing AD forum to another platform for the forseeable. Instead I highly recommend TAPATALK which is setup here at Acorn and I use. It displays all forums, threads, posts clearly, its very easy to read, post, check your messages etc. Anyone with a smartphone should take a look.

Just install it on your phone https://tapatalk.com/ and then search for "Acorn Domains" from the forum lists, log in with your account and you are good to go. You can optionally set it to notify you of updates to threads you are subscribed to or you have a PM.

I've never used tapatalk, but can you display your own ads on it, or does tapatalk display their own ads? I would definately recommend xenforo, I had a large forum with over 5 million posts and the switch across wasn't too difficult ( see http://www.petforums.co.uk) . Its very easy to use on both mobiles and desktops now without the need to rely on other peoples apps to use it.

 

[monaghan]

Yes, I know from experience 'design by committee' doesn't work. Everyone has their own style preferences.

Ha, Ha you have it easy, try doing my church website, we're about 5 years into the original project and everyone is still making their minds up

I truly believe in responsive design but won't be changing AD forum to another platform for the forseeable. Instead I highly recommend TAPATALK which is setup here at Acorn and I use. It displays all forums, threads, posts clearly, its very easy to read, post, check your messages etc. Anyone with a smartphone should take a look.

Just install it on your phone https://tapatalk.com/ and then search for "Acorn Domains" from the forum lists, log in with your account and you are good to go. You can optionally set it to notify you of updates to threads you are subscribed to or you have a PM.

I'm sure tapatalk is good, however, there's so many things wanting to install an app that if I install everything that wants their app, I'll need to take multiple phones so there's enough system memory for all these apps I already have a fully functioning browser and would much rather use this with a responsive website.

 

[Trigger Happy]

I would agree that the difficulty of using Acorn on a phone is one of the reasons for its decline so I would listen to markb here!

 

[Adam H]

Tapatalk is reasonable if you have no other option.............like this place , revenue generation is poor on tapatalk, you have little control but it does give users an additional resource to get to and use the forum.

Ive recommended Xenforo a number of times to Alan before, I also explained that if he was thinking of selling then she should probably not migrate and leave it to the new owner to carry out any big changes because of either the time needed to do it properly or indeed the cost involved if outsourcing was needed.

The issue with the current setup is with out tapatalk the site doesnt comply with mobile standards, even though the APP does make it mobile compliment in Googles eyes there is no secret that as time goes on a natural media query/viewport option ( responsive ) "could" be given more weight in certain situations.

Not migrating will/is holding this place back, regardless of those that don't like change, if the migration is planned and done properly even the most moany members come around with in a week.

Xenforo + SSL with SPDY = Responsive, winning combination for user experience and user safely and brings the site into the current time period for search engines and user UI.

 

[markb]

Xenforo + SSL with SPDY = Responsive, winning combination for user experience and user safely and brings the site into the current time period for search engines and user UI.

Hi Adam, have you changed any of your sites over to use SSL + SPDY ? Is it any good? What is the performance/page load times like compared to before and did you have any issues with google rankings when switching from http to https ?

 

[Admin]

Hi Adam, have you changed any of your sites over to use SSL + SPDY ? Is it any good? What is the performance/page load times like compared to before and did you have any issues with google rankings when switching from http to https ?

http vs https ... Google's pulling our legs again. Don't make a change in the hope of improving your rankings. I cannot see any ads on petforums.co.uk Mark..

 

[gimpydog]

I would agree that the difficulty of using Acorn on a phone is one of the reasons for its decline so I would listen to markb here!

Its gone a bit wonky on the PC lately too. I don't have widescreen eyes, so tend to use a 50-60% width window. Why all the white space?

 

[Admin]

Its gone a bit wonky on the PC lately too. I don't have widescreen eyes, so tend to use a 50-60% width window. Why all the white space?

Hi,

Yeah.. it's OK, that's not wonky. The white space will be there when you are on a forum page that has little content or low thread count and yes this is a 'new feature' because I've added the right sidebar to the forum pages. So that Ad banner is creating a longer page. It's not an actual design error but part and parcel of having added the right sidebar, if that help's you get your head around it

 

[markb]

http vs https ... Google's pulling our legs again. Don't make a change in the hope of improving your rankings. I cannot see any ads on petforums.co.uk Mark..

I took the ads off at the beginning of the year when adsense had been hacked and some of their ads where redirecting to other websites, and haven't bothered adding them back. Something I may add back on it the future.

 

[gimpydog]

Hi,

Yeah.. it's OK, that's not wonky. The white space will be there when you are on a forum page that has little content or low thread count and yes this is a 'new feature' because I've added the right sidebar to the forum pages. So that Ad banner is creating a longer page. It's not an actual design error but part and parcel of having added the right sidebar, if that help's you get your head around it

It does mean the threads are below the fold though. Took me a few days to figure that out

 

[Adam H]

Hi Adam, have you changed any of your sites over to use SSL + SPDY ? Is it any good? What is the performance/page load times like compared to before and did you have any issues with google rankings when switching from http to https ?

You can't look at any change like that directly effecting serps, the way you need to look at it is that having https shows a website is making some effort to think about their users data and increase page speed which all in all gives a better user experience as a whole..........which in turn gives the possibility of preference over a competitor that maybe hasnt gone to that trouble.

Its not a simple.."do this change and it makes a huge difference", it will be a knock on effect of a series of changes which makes your site more appealing to both search engines and users.

But to answer your question, yes ive updated some of my previous sites and clients, thus far there has been no negative effects........there has been positives but like i say that can't be put down directly to one or two aspects of the change.

https + SDPY is quicker than http..........so page speed benefits on top of encrypted data transfer..........whats not to like.

 

[grantw]

Hi,

Yeah.. it's OK, that's not wonky. The white space will be there when you are on a forum page that has little content or low thread count and yes this is a 'new feature' because I've added the right sidebar to the forum pages. So that Ad banner is creating a longer page. It's not an actual design error but part and parcel of having added the right sidebar, if that help's you get your head around it

The issue is, as in the screenshot posted, the posts in the main forum category are being pushed off the bottom of the screen by that new sidebar.

 

[Admin]

The issue is, as in the screenshot above, the posts in the main forum category are being pushed off the bottom of the screen by that new sidebar.

Grant and gimpydog.. yes I now see what you mean, there is a problem there, thanks for bringing it up, I will get onto it.

 

[nick-harper]

I was half expecting a huge banner to load in that space

 

[gimpydog]

The issue is, as in the screenshot posted, the posts in the main forum category are being pushed off the bottom of the screen by that new sidebar.

Thanks Grant.

That's what I meant to say, but sometimes the worms come out wrong

 

[Admin]

gimpydog and grantw - that issue is now fixed, hopefully all looks well to you now - thanks for highlighting it.

 

[grantw]

Looks sorted to me now, thanks.

 

[ian]

Not really a fan of the image tbh, bit too much like Wordart for my taste. Nice however to see some effort being put in, but content is key, and ensuring this platform continues to grow.

 

[Admin]

I agree Ian re. content/engagement.

Anyway, nevermind whether you like it... look how big it goes

 

[woopwoop]

I think you need to move the logo in 10px from the left and move the header banner in 10px from the right. They don't look aligned correctly and seem as though they are edging off the page.

You can put them in a <div> and give a
padding-left:10px
or
padding-right:10px

Or put both the banner and logo in a single div that has the same width as the forum

Anyone else see it? (I'm on Mac with Chrome)