Forum Updates V1
Design
Recently as you could see, we updated forum with the new design. Now, the main changes were the header, which is completely changed to a new style and we got rid of the banners and changed them with small icons. The Icons are now matching to their sections totally. Banners we had before had some random renders, not related to sections they represent at all, plus the fact that all those banners and main logo used like 1.8MB that needed loading. Now as we got rid of them all, it shrinked to less than 0.5MB. Also we got rid of the fancy font that freezed the screen for a second to load. With all this, the site is loading much faster, it will be good especially for those of you who like to use Mobile devices without using the mobile version of DA.
Another big change is the color scheme. As you can see we changed the orange theme to a blue version. Maybe there are few details missing but overall we completed almost everything for color scheme. If you see some orange stuff still, post here.
Portal
Before all these theme changes, we modified the portal as well. Though, at that time, we did not have this header, where League is always up there. So, there was no need for the portal's League bar, the big one. We removed it and now portal looks cleaner. Also we changed some orange colors there. The main problem in portal are the ads from forumotion, they have no styling whatsoever. We will try to style that too, although its diffucult considering the ads are not like before, their tags change with ads so it is hard to instance them via CSS. The Pro Decklists blog at portal completes the reason we have that portal at all. Maybe we will style the blog a bit more in future, but nothing right now.
Forum Tools
Some people asked where is the links from posts since last visit and so on, we removed the small links at top of forum and changed that with a nice menu that we like to call Forum Tools. It is located on the header logo, with the matching icon on it. You just have to click it and you got all the options for posts right there. Reason why it is better like this is that before, if you wanted to see all the new posts since last visit and so on, you had to go back to index page and click it, the links on top of specific topics were same but they referenced only things for that category, not whole forum. Now, you have this menu wherever you are, no need for more clicks especially while using mobile.
Portal -> Home and Home -> Forum
We have also updated navigation links names. Before we had portal, but portal is not understood well when you browse websites, it is usually called home or index. For the sake of following that standard we named Portal as Home. The forum page itself was called either Home or Index, since this is forumotion and main purpose is the forum actually, thus such name. So, when you want to go to forum we changed that to be actually called Forum lol. Now it is clear, if you want to visit DA's homepage, you click Home, if you want to browse the forum itself, you click on Forum. Simple as that.
Usermenu gone
You remember the Usermenu, in forum page, it had the small icon and counted your posts and messages, there we had also links which are now in Forum Tools. There was no need for it anymore, since those links are now in better place, as well as your icon and post count and messages count, all that is located in the Forumotions Toolbar at the top by clicking on Welcome "your name".
Fixed resizing of images problem
Recently some members reported problem about resizing of large images. The outcome was that images were loaded as they are and expanded the forum borders as well making it all look poor. We tracked down the problem, it was in the recent Placeholder code, there was some problem in it, until we resolve it, Placeholder code is deactivated and right now, images resizing works again.
New profile field: Browser
Since we like to play with codes in DA, in some browsers certain things are parsed differently and sometimes we forget to count that into our code too, and you happen to have issues while browsing DA. Of course that happens rarely, but when it does, we always ask you for your browser, which kind you use so we can examine the problem further. Now we speeded up the thing, by making the profile field Browser, in which you can choose which browser is yours from the given ones. We listed 5 most used browsers, others are irrelevant anyway. Please update your profile field with the current browser you use for DA, so we can know it when you have a problem.
Coming Soon
We will concentrate first on the Profile fields. Right now there are several problems and incompatibilities there, where everything looks like a mess. Too many ranks, too many awards at the bottom which all are different style making it all look poor for the eyes. Also there are special ranks when you participate in events such as Shadow Master or Society of Light rank. We will try to synchronise those as best we can and we will introduce Achievements in profies too. With Achievements, we will solve most of the incompatibilities right now, as most of the things will be converted to achievements instead of medals or ranks.
Since we were mostly concentrated on the website updates and enhancing the design, now the things are mostly settled down, only few details are missing, so we will concentrate more on the events and tournaments which you all are waiting for. You saw Regionals is starting again after a bigger break, and we are giving those more importance right now than before. Also, as a sneak peak, the biggest and most challenging tournament where many great veterans are participating, the DA YCS is nearing by!
Recently as you could see, we updated forum with the new design. Now, the main changes were the header, which is completely changed to a new style and we got rid of the banners and changed them with small icons. The Icons are now matching to their sections totally. Banners we had before had some random renders, not related to sections they represent at all, plus the fact that all those banners and main logo used like 1.8MB that needed loading. Now as we got rid of them all, it shrinked to less than 0.5MB. Also we got rid of the fancy font that freezed the screen for a second to load. With all this, the site is loading much faster, it will be good especially for those of you who like to use Mobile devices without using the mobile version of DA.
Another big change is the color scheme. As you can see we changed the orange theme to a blue version. Maybe there are few details missing but overall we completed almost everything for color scheme. If you see some orange stuff still, post here.
Portal
Before all these theme changes, we modified the portal as well. Though, at that time, we did not have this header, where League is always up there. So, there was no need for the portal's League bar, the big one. We removed it and now portal looks cleaner. Also we changed some orange colors there. The main problem in portal are the ads from forumotion, they have no styling whatsoever. We will try to style that too, although its diffucult considering the ads are not like before, their tags change with ads so it is hard to instance them via CSS. The Pro Decklists blog at portal completes the reason we have that portal at all. Maybe we will style the blog a bit more in future, but nothing right now.
Forum Tools
Some people asked where is the links from posts since last visit and so on, we removed the small links at top of forum and changed that with a nice menu that we like to call Forum Tools. It is located on the header logo, with the matching icon on it. You just have to click it and you got all the options for posts right there. Reason why it is better like this is that before, if you wanted to see all the new posts since last visit and so on, you had to go back to index page and click it, the links on top of specific topics were same but they referenced only things for that category, not whole forum. Now, you have this menu wherever you are, no need for more clicks especially while using mobile.
Portal -> Home and Home -> Forum
We have also updated navigation links names. Before we had portal, but portal is not understood well when you browse websites, it is usually called home or index. For the sake of following that standard we named Portal as Home. The forum page itself was called either Home or Index, since this is forumotion and main purpose is the forum actually, thus such name. So, when you want to go to forum we changed that to be actually called Forum lol. Now it is clear, if you want to visit DA's homepage, you click Home, if you want to browse the forum itself, you click on Forum. Simple as that.
Usermenu gone
You remember the Usermenu, in forum page, it had the small icon and counted your posts and messages, there we had also links which are now in Forum Tools. There was no need for it anymore, since those links are now in better place, as well as your icon and post count and messages count, all that is located in the Forumotions Toolbar at the top by clicking on Welcome "your name".
Fixed resizing of images problem
Recently some members reported problem about resizing of large images. The outcome was that images were loaded as they are and expanded the forum borders as well making it all look poor. We tracked down the problem, it was in the recent Placeholder code, there was some problem in it, until we resolve it, Placeholder code is deactivated and right now, images resizing works again.
New profile field: Browser
Since we like to play with codes in DA, in some browsers certain things are parsed differently and sometimes we forget to count that into our code too, and you happen to have issues while browsing DA. Of course that happens rarely, but when it does, we always ask you for your browser, which kind you use so we can examine the problem further. Now we speeded up the thing, by making the profile field Browser, in which you can choose which browser is yours from the given ones. We listed 5 most used browsers, others are irrelevant anyway. Please update your profile field with the current browser you use for DA, so we can know it when you have a problem.
Coming Soon
We will concentrate first on the Profile fields. Right now there are several problems and incompatibilities there, where everything looks like a mess. Too many ranks, too many awards at the bottom which all are different style making it all look poor for the eyes. Also there are special ranks when you participate in events such as Shadow Master or Society of Light rank. We will try to synchronise those as best we can and we will introduce Achievements in profies too. With Achievements, we will solve most of the incompatibilities right now, as most of the things will be converted to achievements instead of medals or ranks.
Since we were mostly concentrated on the website updates and enhancing the design, now the things are mostly settled down, only few details are missing, so we will concentrate more on the events and tournaments which you all are waiting for. You saw Regionals is starting again after a bigger break, and we are giving those more importance right now than before. Also, as a sneak peak, the biggest and most challenging tournament where many great veterans are participating, the DA YCS is nearing by!
Stay tuned! 
