Welcome to GTP16: Dark Mode, Emojis, Reactions, Bookmarks, and So Much More...

[richroo]

I didn't see the fish slap emoji 👀 ?
gonna take a little time to get used to this lost my way already!

 

[ProjectWHaT]

The new dark mode looks great.

Is 2FA no longer working? When I signed in, I did not get a prompt after the new update

 

[Eric Rowland]

...and more!

...and MORE!

...and EVEN MORE?!

 

[dimassa19]

Thanks for the Dark Mode, it was one of my recommendations

Edit: I just made the change... and... BOOOMMM!!!!

Edit 2: My profile picture now makes perfect sense 😜️👍

 

[NotThePrez]

@Jordan , did you just save every GIF that's ever been used on GTP? 'Cause holy crap the GIF library is strong as hell.

 

[Spacegoat]

You've really gone above and beyond with this update, @Jordan. I can't even begin to imagine the work that went into it. Amazing. 👍

 

[Neddo]

This update really gives me 4:3 00s vibes of old forums, wiithout sidebars.

 

[KiroKai]

Great work on dark mode and the update in general! I got some thoughts to share. I liked the featured photos on the homepage so to see them removed from articles is a little sad. The mobile home page is very text heavy now, the previous style was more appealing to me. Nice to see article comments return, I think it's a good solution to keep them as their own system.

Love the return of user titles!

While I was missing a laugh reaction besides the simple post like, I'm not fond at all of the crying laughter. Could you allow us to pick and set our own favourite emojis to react to posts? This was added by facebook as well, a bit after introducing more options than 'like'. If we have to keep defaults, poo seems a weird pick, and it's currently missing a heart/heart eyes.

Finally I'm not sure about removing the old smileys entirely. They were indeed very colourful and easy to distinguish, and far more timeless than the emojis which update and change a little every year. There's just no emoji to replace this lovely dopey smile:

 

[Jordan]

Thanks for all the kind words, guys. As you can see there is still a lot of polishing to do — there is only so much I can really do on the development/staging site before pushing this live, otherwise these things would stay in development forever — but I'll get everything sorted soon enough.

I won't quote everyone who has made bug reports, but I have noted them all and will triage accordingly. I will do my best to leave some notes as things get fixed. First up is avatar uploads.

Oh and not an issue as such but what was behind the decision for no article images on the homepage of the site? Performance I assume? It feels very text heavy now, with nothing to draw you to a certain article at a glance.

It was just a design choice, though performance was definitely a factor. I struggled with many variations of the homepage layout for weeks, so I may re-introduce featured images on mobile. I prefer things a certain way some days, then another the next. Keep in mind that things will start to look a bit different once we get featured threads, posts, and images in there... you haven't seen those yet.

EDIT: Noticed also that the site header can't be made unsticky by the option in preferences any more, it has no effect. I assume this is intentional, so perhaps remove that option if it's not longer possible?

No, it just got overlooked among the hundreds of other features. 🙃 I should be able to re-implement that. I'll put it on the list.

when I look at my post history, the "latest" ones are 4 years old.

Yeah, I know it looks like the search feature is fully operational now, but it's definitely not... 😆

Things like post histories and search still need to be brought fully online and it will take a few days. There are actually several other features dependent on the search engine which I haven't even mentioned yet that are not yet operational because of this. The search engine is its own beast.

Also, a YouTube playlist I'd posted isn't working, but individual videos are.

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/the-sonic-youth-appreciation-thread.384891/

I actually don't recall YouTube playlists working with our previous embed system. If you try to embed it again, is the player still broken?

There is one query regarding the post editor which I'm surprised has not been addressed yet, and that is the omission of some useful features from the previous version including the media gallery embed (the one with the camera icon) and the ability to insert bullet points/numbered lists without codes. I used the former frequently to insert uploaded images of my custom GT Sport liveries for threads and competitions, so is there an alternative method I can use without having to search for the specific 'Embed Gallery' BB code?

@Jordan something I've just noticed is that there's no button for making bullet-point lists in a comment (neither ordered or unordered).

Sorry about that. Lists and gallery embed buttons are back in the editor now.

Found a possible bug.

Favicon for the forum is not the GTP icon.
View attachment 1061270

Yeah, I didn't mention that in the write-up, but the favicons are "dynamic".

A red dot will be displayed there if you have unread alerts or messages.

Only complaint I have is clicking "Home" when on the forums takes you to the news page instead of the main forum page. That's just a habit that will eventually be broken though.

I was waiting for this... 😆

It tripped me up quite a bit during development, too, but you'll find you get used to it quickly — and now we have a fully consistent breadcrumb navigation across the entire site. 🎉

Does GTP have an app?

No.

Does that mean there's now a Reactions leaderboard anywhere? 👀

Yep.

Hi, congrats on the new site. Looks great... now where did you hide the "watched threads feature"?

Cheers

Seth

"Watched threads" are now called "subscribed threads" (again). It's actually a return to the original nomenclature.

Question: What's the maximum size the profile backgrounds use? I am wanting to resize a picture to fit more appropriately on my profile because the one I have one in mind is currently too large.

The software will crop it for you, but generally anything larger than 1180x290 should fit well. The aspect ratio is the most important factor for "fitting", of course.

One question for @Jordan - regarding the Self-Service Account Name Changes update, does the below section of the Frequently Asked Questions still apply? There's a username in question that I would like that does fit the requirements listed below (and yes, I would get Premium for it as I do not have that yet.)

The policy still applies (and you've just reminded me I need to update the FAQ section too, yikes 🤪), but the software doesn't take that into consideration and those types of requests will still need to be handled manually.

 

[Anathema]

The policy still applies (and you've just reminded me I need to update the FAQ section too, yikes 🤪), but the software doesn't take that into consideration and those types of requests will still need to be handled manually.

Copy that, thanks for the response. PM regarding that topic has been sent as well.

 

[GrindyBeak]

Liking the new update, getting used to it real quick. The name change changes are great so we don't have to bother you Jordan 😆. If I only had waited a few days later on my name change, since I didn't know this new update was coming 👀.

 

[Sonygamer455]

The software will crop it for you, but generally anything larger than 1180x290 should fit well. The aspect ratio is the most important factor for "fitting", of course.

I suppose I should have clarified a little more, but what I meant is, what size can I set my picture to so it's a perfect fit and I wouldn't have any overhang?

 

[Wolfe]

I can report one significant bug (Waterfox G3.2.3 x64, in case it matters). When the "BB Code" toggle is switched off to disable WYSIWYG (something I do frequently to maintain clean and deliberate post formatting), all the other functions are disabled except for "Preview" -- even the button to save a draft of the post. Bold, italic, links, images, etc. can only be added manually with BB code in that mode.

...dark mode is pretty nice but it's a bit hard to notice the difference between unread and read topics. I know unread are bold, and you can tell obviously, but at a glance they don't stand out to me as much as they do on the light theme, not sure why. But perhaps another indicator could be added?

Changing the color of read topic titles to a light gray would help a lot, I think. The bold is close to enough, but not quite enough, IMO.

I encountered a similar ambiguity while adding a link to a post, though it isn't as bad as it first appeared to be. In the post entry field and the preview it offers, hypertext is white like regular text -- not even underlined without mouse hover. Color and an underline are only applied once the post is submitted. That's OK then, but it would be nice to be able to discern hypertext more easily while still composing a post.

🐺

 

[Mr Grumpy]

If you click on the square with 3 dots a drop-down menu appears with the option to skip to a specific page.

View attachment 1061362

Did you not see my edit?

 

[05XR8]

Is the reaction score how many posts I comment on?

 

[Northstar]

Did you not see my edit?

Not until about 12 seconds ago, way to live up to the name as well. 😉

 

[Jordan]

I suppose I should have clarified a little more, but what I meant is, what size can I set my picture to so it's a perfect fit and I wouldn't have any overhang?

1178 x 250 should be a perfect fit.

I can report one significant bug (Waterfox G3.2.3 x64, in case it matters). When the "BB Code" toggle is switched off to disable WYSIWYG (something I do frequently to maintain clean and deliberate post formatting), all the other functions are disabled except for "Preview" -- even the button to save a draft of the post. Bold, italic, links, images, etc. can only be added manually with BB code in that mode.

Not really a bug, unfortunately that's just how the new editor works. It doesn't insert the BB code for you in that mode.

Changing the color of read topic titles to a light gray would help a lot, I think. The bold is close to enough, but not quite enough, IMO.

I encountered a similar ambiguity while adding a link to a post, though it isn't as bad as it first appeared to be. In the post entry field and the preview it offers, hypertext is white like regular text -- not even underlined without mouse hover. Color and an underline are only applied once the post is submitted. That's OK then, but it would be nice to be able to discern hypertext more easily while still composing a post.

Yeah, the dark mode colors will be updated and post links in the editor definitely should be underlined. It's on the list.

Is the reaction score how many posts I comment on?

Your reaction score is based upon how many likes or reactions you have received on your posts.

 

[ProjectWHaT]

"Watched threads" are now called "subscribed threads" (again). It's actually a return to the original nomenclature.

It seems like subscribed threads are also called "followed" when filtering new posts

In addition, I miss the old "Watched threads" page, because it only shows threads that have updated, whereas the new "New Posts" page with "Followed" filtering, still has threads that you've already read


Also two small UX things I noticed:

Maybe it's just me, but it's slightly difficult to see the difference between read and unread threads in dark mode (see above screenshot).

Also, once you've clicked a link in a post in dark mode, it becomes white, the same as normal underlined text so it can be slightly confusing, like this for example

Also, I just noticed you can resize images in the editor which is so helpful, especially for the photography threads lmao

 

[SpeedStar2000]

@Jordan great job on the GTP16 update this is brilliant. And FYI: the google/facebook URL currently are not working (which is why I had to create this account) Hopefully this ill be very good step forward on getting more people excited on GTPlanet with the new UI within the forum.

 

[Theufcveteran]

This is a massive overhaul - I really like all the new features, but the new layout will definitely take some getting used to (not a bad thing, just that I'm so used to how it was before). Gonna miss the old smileys like others have said, but emojis have most of them so there's a replacement of sorts there. Maybe one day we might see them again, just for old time's sake? Great job with everything, I imagine this must've taken a lot of work. Lots of refinements and new additions, going to be fun trying them all out - awesome job again, all!

 

[VulcanSpirit]

Lists and gallery embed buttons are back in the editor now.

Thank you so much for putting them back in. They're showing up fine for me. 👍

 

[fisheye]

Bug report... uBlock Origin (ad blocker) breaks a lot of pages. Sometimes there's nothing but the header and the rest of the forum is blank.

 

[Shaun]

Secondly the dark mode is pretty nice but it's a bit hard to notice the difference between unread and read topics. I know unread are bold, and you can tell obviously, but at a glance they don't stand out to me as much as they do on the light theme, not sure why.

Very much this, my only gripe so far with limited time spent on the new site.
It's the same on my PC as well as phone.

 

[Jordan]

A few quick updates on the most pressing issues:

• List and gallery buttons have been restored in the post editor menu.
• External login services (Facebook, Google, and Twitter) have been restored.
• Avatar uploads are working again.
• Avatar transparency is working again.

 

[kolio]

I'm celebrating the site update with Premium. Well done, Jordan. (So glad cheers stayed! My favorite was the : lol : 😭. But I'll live...)

Browsed dark mode for a bit and wasn't totally lost, but definitely need to browse back in light until I get everything new figured out. 🤣

Bug report... uBlock Origin (ad blocker) breaks a lot of pages. Sometimes there's nothing but the header and the rest of the forum is blank.

Speaking of Premium, it takes the ads away. 😃



EDIT: What does the green avatar emblem mean in the bottom right of usernames?

 

[CodeRedR51]

@Jordan the one thing I have noticed is that previously embedded Instagram posts now just show as a link. Is there another way we need to go about embedding them, or is it no longer an option?

 

[RadishTM]

Liking the new look, sleek and refined 🤘

Am I being blind or is the "Mark Forums Read" link missing?

 

[Jump_Ace]

Jordan answered already; No


Jerome

 

[Sonygamer455]

EDIT: What does the green avatar emblem mean in the bottom right of usernames?

It means said user is online now.

 

[taz]

Dark mode

Nice job on the dark mode theme. I'm gonna do some exploring now.