Improvements

[Eriaror]

I thought of making it that way, but eventually did not do it for the same reason. There's nothing in it that really has to be conveniently accessible all the time, AND it would take up screen space there.
However, I can still make it if a lot of people would like it for some reason I didn't consider.

[Eriaror]

[...]

If you want to have text areas be semi-transparent, make sure that the actual text is backed by solid white fill somehow.  There are four places where I see the need for that with this design:

 - quote boxes
 - the text box I'm typing in now  :/
 - the breadcrumb bar at the top ("The Stand Still, Stay Silent Fan-Forum » Topics » Forum and Website Discussion » etc...")
 - the topmost upper right summary box ("Show unread posts since your last visit," etc)

I don't know how easy this is to fix in this CMS.  But if you really want it to look its best, the text contrast is key.

On most of these I just went with a background transparent enough that you can see what's underneath but opaque enough to make the text readable. However, what may be fine to read for me, may be hard to read for someone else.

• The grayish watercolor texture in the textboxes feels stupid now, I'll probably change it to pure white
• I could easily back the breadcrumbs with some white
• The quote boxes seem fine to me, they were almost like this since the forum exists
• I could maybe make the upper box a bit more opaque. Just a bit, because I dooon't want to hide that picture of the crew... 

Sooo maybe making that translucency slider would really be a good idea, I'll experiment with that today.

[JoB]

I'm pretty sure that that indicates "People in this column are the author of the reply next to their name" rather than "<insert topic author here>".

Good point. It is the same on SMF's own forum.

[JoB]

My friend suggested making the top navigation bar scroll down with the scroll bar, so it would stay at the top of your window while you're looking at the bottom - I can see how that could be useful, but also how it could be annoying. Thoughts? Has this been suggested before?

Like the Wikia-enforced top navigation bar on our wiki? Don your fireproof underwear before reading what Wikia users had to comment on those announcements ...

[Eich]

I LOVE it, it's beautifully designed, and really gives our fandom a nice cover! The forum is no longer without character, it feel like it belongs to Minna! Also, the little news in the upper right hand corner is very useful! 

The news box was always there.  It held the link to the comic before the new theme was implemented.
It just... wasn't very well placed before, and was easy to miss... especially if you collapsed the upper box that held it.

[Amity]

On most of these I just went with a background transparent enough that you can see what's underneath but opaque enough to make the text readable. However, what may be fine to read for me, may be hard to read for someone else.

It's not like it's black on black backed by a black background.  I can in fact read the text, it's just that it's a snag.

I really like the background images and how they appear and disappear in little corners and edges!  But it's slightly ironic -- the layout has all this opaque white space where there's no text, and where there's text it has the wrinkly watercolor and half-alpha text overlays.  So I see less of the art that I would want, because it's covered by so much white fill in so many places, but where I do see it is where I also want to read type.

[Adrai Thell]

Like the Wikia-enforced top navigation bar...

Reminder of that tipped me over from being iffy to being definitely against. Yech, that thing is not my favorite thing ever...

[hushpiper]

On most of these I just went with a background transparent enough that you can see what's underneath but opaque enough to make the text readable. However, what may be fine to read for me, may be hard to read for someone else.

• The grayish watercolor texture in the textboxes feels stupid now, I'll probably change it to pure white
• I could easily back the breadcrumbs with some white
• The quote boxes seem fine to me, they were almost like this since the forum exists
• I could maybe make the upper box a bit more opaque. Just a bit, because I dooon't want to hide that picture of the crew... 

Sooo maybe making that translucency slider would really be a good idea, I'll experiment with that today.

I like the quote boxes as-is! And yeah, a translucency slider is probably a good idea, and was requested earlier I think. I don't look at the news box all that often and mostly keep it scrolled up, so the question of transparency or no-transparency is a nonissue for me personally. Also I should note that in my boredom/curiosity yesterday I started tweaking the theme for mobile, based on the responsive curve mod SMF put out the other day. It's hacky as hell so far, but it does resize properly for smaller screens and uses menu icons from FontAwesome. It's up on the dev site as usual.

[Mélusine]

Don't pay attention to what I said before, all is all right now and this new theme is perfect

[Eriaror]

All the cookies to you, hushpiper!
I didn't have the courage to start making a mobile version, and then you do it. And it's awesome!
If you need help in anything, you can contact me anytime*

*(I probably won't answer while I'm sleeping or not online but I'll see it eventually)

[Sunflower]

Is it possible to change the links in "Minna's Comics" above so they open the comics in a new browser window, rather than replacing the forum?  (Or rather, to have that be the default setting?)

[hushpiper]

Is it possible to change the links in "Minna's Comics" above so they open the comics in a new browser window, rather than replacing the forum?  (Or rather, to have that be the default setting?)

Done. Was just a small change to the existing code. Let me know if it works for you, I didn't test it as thoroughly as I usually do.

[hushpiper]

All the cookies to you, hushpiper!
I didn't have the courage to start making a mobile version, and then you do it. And it's awesome!
If you need help in anything, you can contact me anytime*

*(I probably won't answer while I'm sleeping or not online but I'll see it eventually)

Eheheh well, I'll send you instructions to replicate it on your side sometime tomorrow, because I could sure use your help with the CSS--like I said, it's hacky as hell and could probably be made much better by someone who knows CSS better than I do.

[Emil]

So I have a couple of suggestions, but beware that this is just my opinions and should therefore not be regarded if there's a overwhelming opposition to it. Just basing it off my previous "forum experience"

First off, if you can introduce some sort of colourscheme  of some sort for nicknames so we can easier see which usergroup a user belongs to (like members, moderators, admins, that sort of stuff) that'd be nice. It's hard to tell sometimes, especially when one's new.

Another thing that might be nice is a small, maybe subtle line separating posts from poster. Maybe a small, grey line? Example of what I'm thinking of.

[Sunflower]

So I have a couple of suggestions, but beware that this is just my opinions and should therefore not be regarded if there's a overwhelming opposition to it. Just basing it off my previous "forum experience"

First off, if you can introduce some sort of colourscheme  of some sort for nicknames so we can easier see which usergroup a user belongs to (like members, moderators, admins, that sort of stuff) that'd be nice. It's hard to tell sometimes, especially when one's new.

Good suggestion, Emil.  (Um, wait.  Aren't you supposed to be on the opposite side of the proverbial fourth wall?  I'm confused.  )

The truth is, we don't have a lot of different user groups yet.  There's exactly one admin -- Eich, all hail -- and three assistant admins/content moderators:  Noako (who, regrettably, seems to have gone missing), Hushpiper the Slayer of Silence, and me, a Skald.  (Which means I can do some content and thread stuff, but not mess up the forum technically.)

Everyone else here is a member.  We do have ranks based on post count, which I'm sure you've seen -- Newbie, Safe-Zone Citizen, Scout, etc. -- and those are displayed by name and square count at the left, by your Forum name and icon. 

So I don't know if there's much need for your suggestion just yet.  Who knows, though -- a year down the road we could have thousands of members and spin-off sub-forums stretching from here to Kastrup, and therefore a sore need for more user classification.

Meanwhile, do keep those suggestions coming!