[mrtbahgs]

VerticalScope caused a need for a completely new/fresh overhaul so it is now even more so a work in progress and unfortunately will likely progress much slower than the last one.

OCN High Contrast Theme is a variation of TFL Replica's "OCN Dusk Theme" in which I modified his code to bring in some bright colors to contrast with the dark backgrounds.

Stylish Theme: OCN High Contrast



The following spoiler contains the original post when OCN was using a different host, I wanted to keep it around, but hidden.

Spoiler

***This post will be updated over time, for now I leave you with the basics.***
***Note: If you installed the Beta before I made this thread, please go and update or replace what you have currently as a few things have changed, and also be sure to add the Javascript edits (Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey add-on) which weren't available earlier.***


OCN High Contrast Theme is a variation of Jiiks' "OCN Dark Theme" in which I modified his code to bring in some bright colors to contrast with the dark backgrounds and have a few extra features added in that aren't found elsewhere.
So first off, thank you Jiiks, without you this wouldn't exist!
It is still in what I would consider a Beta stage as not everything has been looked at and tweaked yet, but will be done so hopefully soon. Once I feel every page has had a chance to be touched, I can then release the first official version.
For now it is around 90% complete and most of your regular pages should get the full theme feel.



The steps needed to run this theme are as follows:

If Using Firefox

• Install the Stylish add-on, HERE
• Install the Greasemonkey add-on, HERE
• Restart Firefox (if prompted to)
• Install OCN High Contrast Theme (Stylish Portion), HERE
• Install OCN High Contrast Theme (Greasemonkey Portion), HERE
• Refresh your OCN page

Spoiler

I recently got updated to the latest Firefox (55) and all my extensions stopped working and say "Legacy".
This then caused OCN to revert back to default and look horrible as well as started getting redirect errors and other strange things I've never experienced before.

I am not sure if the extensions will make an updated version to work better or no longer say Legacy, but I was able to Enable them anyway (kind of override it I guess) and upon restarting Firefox things are back to how they were.

I am not a Chrome user so if it breaks or has trouble in the future let me know and I will see if anything special needs to be done there as well.

If Using Chrome

• Install the Stylish add-on, HERE
• Install the Tampermonkey add-on, HERE
• Restart Chrome (if prompted to)
• Install OCN High Contrast Theme (Stylish Portion), HERE
• Install OCN High Contrast Theme (Tampermonkey Portion), HERE
• Refresh your OCN page

If Using Internet Explorer or Edge

• Download Firefox (IE/Edge are garbage), OR
• Download Chrome (IE/Edge are garbage), THEN
• Refer to appropriate steps above based on your newly chosen browser

Let me know if you have any troubles with the installs and I appreciate feedback and suggestions either in this thread or via PM.

Spoiler

 

[mrtbahgs]

I am curious if anyone who has tried my theme out has any comments on it.
I noticed that the stylish page can track the number of installs which is at 18 currently so I know some have at least taken a minute to see what is looks like, but have many stuck with it or have most turned it off? If you turned it off, did you go back to the original OCN Dark, OCN Classic, or kept the stock look?

One bigger question I want to ask is assuming the counter is correct on Greasyfork, it doesn't look like anyone has installed the javascript portion of the theme so that you can get some other key features of the package.
I realize 2 of them are also offered in a few other theme's installs, but I doubt 100% of the stylish installs have the javascript enhancements on beforehand from someone else's version (plus it wouldnt jive properly).
Can anyone chime in as to why they haven't included the javascript install as well, especially for anyone that may be continuing to use OCN High Contrast daily?

 

[mrtbahgs]

Updated the stylish theme just a bit, the biggest change being the large scrolled up OCN logo now include ".net" again to match the one when scrolled down.


Please go back to the userstyles site and click "Update Style" to have the latest version.

I haven't been motivated to really push onward with more changes to other pages since I haven't seen outside interest and for the most part I am happy enough with the results currently since the pages I do go to are like 98% complete.
If others comment that they are using the theme I would be more inclined to finish the un-altered pages, for now i can just see a potential of about 20 users max, but I assume most have only downloaded to see what its like and then turned it off.

Dont forget to add the Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey add-ons as well, they seem to get skipped by most.

 

[Dude970]

Im glad I found this, thank you!. I will try Greasemonkey/Tampermonkey add-ons soon

 

[mrtbahgs]

You're welcome, I am glad someone else will enjoy it too.

I haven't really touched it to try and finish the little things here and there since they are rare, but I may look into it again and be sure to keep this thread updated if new versions are posted.
If you see anything major that really bothers you, please let me know and I can see if it's a fix I can do.

 

[Dude970]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrtbahgs

You're welcome, I am glad someone else will enjoy it too.

I haven't really touched it to try and finish the little things here and there since they are rare, but I may look into it again and be sure to keep this thread updated if new versions are posted.
If you see anything major that really bothers you, please let me know and I can see if it's a fix I can do.

Thank you. I enabled the other add-ons now

 

[mrtbahgs]

I'm sure there are a lot of ones to pick, but if using Firefox, I like the Dark Fox theme to go with this.

 

[mrtbahgs]

One update to add here since I can't add it to the main post until they unlock it for me:

I recently got updated to the latest Firefox (55) and all my extensions stopped working and say "Legacy".
This then caused OCN to revert back to default and look horrible as well as started getting redirect errors and other strange things I've never experienced before.

I am not sure if the extensions will make an updated version to work better or no longer say Legacy, but I was able to Enable them anyway (kind of override it I guess) and upon restarting Firefox things are back to how they were.

I am not a Chrome user so if it breaks or has trouble in the future let me know and I will see if anything special needs to be done there as well.

 

[Dude970]

Had to switch to TFL replica with the forum change

 

[KedarWolf]

Not working with Chrome Beta.

 

[mrtbahgs]

Yea, unfortunately someone decided it’d be a good idea to trash our website’s layout, look, and usability so basically nothing works anymore for this theme.

 

[TwoCables]

Do you need some help making a high contrast look with the new platform? I already got an extremely good start on redoing OCN Classic. I found it to be far easier this time around to customize things.

Slightly off-topic, but, I know you weren't here when OCN was on vBulletin before Huddler (it was on vBulletin all the way up until November 9th 2011), but seriously, vBulletin is far better for OCN and it always has been. When they're all finished with this migration, you'll be able to look back and say that this is better than what we had before. It's still way too early to judge this platform. Give them time to finish the migration first and then judge it. I'm sure they'll let us know when they believe they're done.

 

[Dude970]

Hello TwoCables, I hope you are right. I will wait and see what happens.

 

[mrtbahgs]

How do you know this isn’t already the finished product?

Seems odd to move before it was polished and drive away a ton of users. If there is more to come there is a lot of work to go before it seems usable again imo.

I appreciate the offer in helping restore the look, I’m just super busy right now, but I may take a stab at it eventually. Unfortunately I forgot a lot of what I did since I haven’t messed with CSS really since this creation. I also can’t refer back to this look to try and mimic it as well, I can get somewhat close though with the couple screenshots I think I took. I’ll eventually take a look at yours to see if it helps like the new look.

If they really are still doing major overhauls and fixing existing bugs then it’s probably best to wait on customizing until I see the changes and work on it then. I’d hate to invest a bunch of time again only to see phase 2 kick in and mess that up too.

I rarely visit the site now since I can’t view things like I want or just check in on topics as easily so I might be slow to notice the newest changes that may take place. It basically just killed a lot of interest in even visiting OCN. I’m spending time of phantompilots and commercialdronepilots forums now too.

 

[TwoCables]

Hello TwoCables, I hope you are right. I will wait and see what happens.

I've experienced OCN on vBulletin before. Huddler was a nightmare that lasted 6 long years. I wish I could find the words to truly express to you how huge of a relief it is to see OCN migrating back to vBulletin. When the dust settles, it'll be great.

How do you know this isn’t already the finished product?

Because I have been reading all the official posts - and also because I've been through this before.

Besides, why would you think that THIS is the finished product of this migration? I really don't get it. Forum platform migrations of big forums like this one are a HUGE project. It's just not possible to get it done as fast as you seem to think it should. If they had finished by now, then it would be an extremely amazing record for a migration of this scale. Even though I was extremely happy to read we were going to go back to vBulletin, I knew we'd be in for several weeks at the least (likely a lot longer) of watching them get everything back up and working smoothly and looking good. As the old saying goes, keep your shirt on...

Seems odd to move before it was polished and drive away a ton of users. If there is more to come there is a lot of work to go before it seems usable again imo.

Usable? How is this not usable? Are you kidding? What's not usable about it? It seems quite usable to me! No, I'm not saying I'd be happy if they were to quit working on this and just call it done. Hell no. What I am saying is, it's still very usable even though it's obviously still far from being done.

The migration from vBulletin to Huddler (the previous platform) was far worse than this, and even then the staff said migrations are always messy at first. It can't be avoided. Just be patient and show some support. Their jobs with this migration are hard enough as it is. You don't know this, but I honestly tried my damn hardest to quit coming here when they moved to Huddler. I was gone for nearly 7 months and I finally cracked and came back. I honestly believed though that I was done with "this damn place". Many of us felt that way because of how bad it was. We were told many times by the staff though that we should just stay and hang in there because migrations are always messy and it can't be avoided. I still left though. I was pissed because of how butt-ugly it was and how crappy the user-friendliness was. It was absolutely ******ed in comparison to what we had on vBulletin (and it still was the entire 6 years - trust me).

I appreciate the offer in helping restore the look, I’m just super busy right now, but I may take a stab at it eventually. Unfortunately I forgot a lot of what I did since I haven’t messed with CSS really since this creation. I also can’t refer back to this look to try and mimic it as well, I can get somewhat close though with the couple screenshots I think I took. I’ll eventually take a look at yours to see if it helps like the new look.

All you have to do is look for the colors you used in your CSS code. It's not like you used hundreds of different colors. You had like what, maybe a handful of different colors right? Fortunately, CSS is easy and you'll find just as I did that it's like riding a bike.

If they really are still doing major overhauls and fixing existing bugs then it’s probably best to wait on customizing until I see the changes and work on it then. I’d hate to invest a bunch of time again only to see phase 2 kick in and mess that up too.

K, suit yourself. I really doubt any changes like that will happen, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I rarely visit the site now since I can’t view things like I want or just check in on topics as easily so I might be slow to notice the newest changes that may take place. It basically just killed a lot of interest in even visiting OCN. I’m spending time of phantompilots and commercialdronepilots forums now too.

LOL yeah you should've been here when they migrated to Huddler. You think this is bad, this is nothing. This is a pretty decent migration so far. I'm extremely happy with how it's going. No it's not perfect yet, but the migration only started a few days ago. It hasn't even been a week yet!

 

[mrtbahgs]

Just to keep it short, my main thing is I find it hard to believe they would push out a major overhaul that is only at the 30% completion phase and then get it to 100% over the next 6 months or however long it takes. I would think anyone who appreciates their work would not want a public release until things are like 90% complete so that you can avoid the constant "this sucks" comments when they ask for feedback.

I will attempt to patiently wait for changes, tweaks, and hopefully major revisions to this platform though, but by unusable I mean it is less user friendly and more work to do a lot of things that used to be 2nd nature if you will and right in front of you.

In terms of colors for the high contrast look i made, you are correct there were only a few, but I was more referring to which parts had which colors and I have a feeling the names changed so it will be a lot of work using the inspector again to try and figure out what I need to say to override the color. Maybe I can take a page out of OCN managements work and I will release a version with only a few tweaks made (like text and button colors) and then over 8 months I can actually create the final look.

One a side note while I am commenting:
One thing that is bothering me is how do you get rid of the damn notifications? I keep seeing the number up above and I click the link to it, but it basically just shows me a subscription page and not way to clear them.

 

[TwoCables]

To get rid of Quote notifications, just go into your User CP and click "Settings" under "User Tagging" and configure these settings as you'd like.

 

[mrtbahgs]

To get rid of Quote notifications, just go into your User CP and click "Settings" under "User Tagging" and configure these settings as you'd like.

Thank you for pointing that out, but is that more of a work around to just hide and never get notifications?

I guess a better question is, do you know if the notifications are working as intended or are broken and will eventually get fixed and actually reduce in number as you check them or some trigger? If this is the way they intend them to work and over time the number grows to hundreds, then yes I will just deactivate them all and count it as another lost feature.

 

[TwoCables]

Thank you for pointing that out, but is that more of a work around to just hide and never get notifications?

I guess a better question is, do you know if the notifications are working as intended or are broken and will eventually get fixed and actually reduce in number as you check them or some trigger? If this is the way they intend them to work and over time the number grows to hundreds, then yes I will just deactivate them all and count it as another lost feature.

You should probably talk to the OCN staff members and VerticalScope staff members about this who are involved in this migration.

 

[mrtbahgs]

I am every slowly trying to tweak some things to get semi-close to the old look...
Between not knowing a ton of this before hand and then also having a lapse of time between when I was learning, I have a tough time finding the right initial code to put so I can then manipulate backgrounds, font colors, etc.

I am hoping to have a somewhat mediocre looking overhaul before I post it to the public, but I don't want to do it sooo soon that it looks like garbage to you and I lose the few people that may be interested in the final product later. We will see as we go I guess. Perhaps I will be the only one to like the look anyway lol... I am not sure how many of you cared for the one from this thread when we had the previous OCN style.

I am hoping to get some help from a few people to point me in the right direction to the initial codes for things I want to change and then I can do the color choices from there. I am not sure if I should start a thread for help tweaking or keep it going in here or what though...