EMS Upgrade Complete

[Craig]

Welcome to the newest version of the East Midlands Stargazers website

 

Thank you all for your patience while the website was offline.

 

Reminder: the first step in fixing any bugs is to clear your browser cache! 😉

 

New Features

 

Let there be light!

 

You can now toggle between the dark and light versions of our website at the top of the screen:

 

 

We're using a set of light and dark themes that share a common layout, so switching between them is much more seamless. If you know your way around one, you'll have no trouble finding your way around the other.

 

EMS your way...

 

You can now customise the look and feel of the website to suit your own personal preferences. You can access the customisation options at the top of the screen:

 

 

Clicking on this will open a new window:

 

 

Choose your background

 

You can choose your preferred background header image from one of four options:

 

• Random (a random header image will be displayed each time you refresh a page or navigate about the site)
• Eta Carinae
• Orion
• Heart and Soul
• Original (a static version of the header from our old theme)

 

Dark or light?

 

Just as with the switch in the header bar, you can also toggle between dark mode and light mode in this screen.

 

Sticky header for easier access

 

The header at the top of the website would normally disappear from view as soon as you scroll down. With this option selected, the header will remain visible for easy access at all times.

 

 

Fluid width

 

EMS has a default maximum width of 1,440 pixels. This is fine for most people, but if you have a larger screen and prefer to use most of it, fluid width will use up to 95% of the width of the browser window.

 

Larger font-sizes

 

If you struggle with reading small fonts on your screen, this accessibility feature will allow you to increase the default size of all the fonts to make it easier.

 

Sticky author panel

 

When reading posts and scrolling down, this setting will cause the author's details to remain in view:

 

 

Sticky sidebar

 

This setting will cause the website sidebar to remain displayed no matter how far you scroll. We have a rather long sidebar with a lot of information in it, which will be harder to view if this option is enabled. I recommend leaving it off.

 

Flip sidebar

 

This setting allows you to switch the sidebar from one side to the other.

 

Post information at a glance

 

When reading topics you'll now see a new information panel alongside them, which provides at-a-glance information about the topic (such as images posted, popular posts, etc.):

 

 

Improved mobile experience

 

The mobile experience has been improved to make it easier to navigate EMS on mobiles and to do so more easily when using the phone with a single hand. The most notable improvement is the addition of the mobile access bar:

 

 

Additionally, a new mobile app is in beta testing which EMS has been signed up to. I'll post more details about that as soon as we're approved, including instructions for downloading the app. It will be important to note that some custom functions of EMS, such as the Chatbox, will not work in the app.

 

Bugs

 

As always, please report any bugs in this topic or by dropping me a PM.

[+Ibbo]

Thanks for all your work craig.

 

[+RonC]

Thanks Craig..

[+Graham]

Great job well done Craig

[Doc]

Looks great thanks Craig.

[BAZ]

Well, look what you have gone and done! I like it, nice and fresh.

Many thanks Craig.

[+Glafnazur]

Looks good, thanks Craig

[Brantuk]

Is there any option to switch the sticky author panel off Craig?

 

[BAZ]

Click the symbol to the left of the light bulb on the top row. (White oval with black circle.)  The sticky author button is at the bottom of this menu. HTH.

[Brantuk]

Thanks Martyn - but I think I was asking about the wrong panel - it's the side bar on the right hand side that I want to remove  - flipping it is pointless.

 

It's fine on the home page but when I go to a post I'd like to read the post across the page like normal reading, rather than read it in a column format.

 

So is there any way to switch off the side bar when reading posts?

[BAZ]

Ah, not sure about that one, I think we might need a level 57 Wizard to help.

[Craig]

7 hours ago, Brantuk said:

So is there any way to switch off the side bar when reading posts?

 

Unfortunately you can't customise that, but I've tweaked the behaviour of that section so that it appears underneath the first post of the topic rather than as a sidebar.

[Brantuk]

Ahhh.... ok - that's great thanks Craig. Now when I go to the first unread post of a topic, it's back to normal reading. And if I want the sidebar info - which I never do when reading posts - I can scroll up to the top, or just go back to the home page. 🙂

[+Ibbo]

Just a heads up.

I keep getting multiple e  mail noticifcations for pm's.

[Craig]

On 16/09/2020 at 14:49, Ibbo said:

Just a heads up.

I keep getting multiple e  mail noticifcations for pm's.

 

This is hopefully resolved. Let me know if not. 🤞🏻

[+Ibbo]

Thanks Craig was it part of the other issue?

[Craig]

4 hours ago, Ibbo said:

Thanks Craig was it part of the other issue?

 

It was - some people were not getting emails at all, and others, like yourself, were getting duplicates.