We SHALL go to the ball - new code on the AO3 tonight

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Published:

2011-11-11 18:37:08 UTC

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2011

The day is finally here - after much hard work from our coders and testers, we are ready to roll out our exciting new code on the Archive of Our Own! We will be deploying shortly, and the AO3 will go down for a while while we do so. When we come back, there will be some big changes which you need to know about:

New site scheme

Front-end coder lim, working with back-end coder Naomi, has reworked our site HTML and CSS to make it more accessible, more functional, and all-round nicer. So, you'll see some visual changes across the site (and if you're using assistive technology or special browser settings you should find it behaves better - if not, please tell us). Don't be alarmed if things don't look how you're used to!

New skins

The new CSS has allowed us to massively overhaul our skins functionality to make it way more flexible - check out our post about the new skins for a bit more background. This will allow for a lot more cool site mods in the future! The unfortunate side-effect is that old skins will break. To make the transition smoother, we'll be doing the following:

Disabling all old skins and setting all accounts to use the Archive default, so that noone gets stuck on a broken skin.
Loading up a whole bunch of new skins, including new versions based on the most popular public skins in use at the moment. So, many of you will be able to switch immediately to a new skin which replicates the one you were using before. We'll post a list of the new skins right after the deploy.
Holding an open house for skins support in the next week or so (time tba).

We'll be posting more docs and help over the coming hours and days! There may be the odd bit of unexpected behaviour along the way (with skins especially, the diversity of user-created skins means we can't prepare for every possible scenario) but we think the new functionality will give you much much more awesome! Cinderella is getting her ballgown on and the good news is that for the shiny new skins, midnight will never come!

We'll tweet to AO3_status when we start the deploy, so you'll have a heads-up before the site goes down. Download your long works now to tide you over while our fairy deploymother is working her magic!

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Cala Fri 11 Nov 2011 08:57PM UTC

The new look is really cool!

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1. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:32AM UTC
  
  Thanks for letting us know - I'm glad the new interface is working out for you!
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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linnet (Guest) Fri 11 Nov 2011 09:16PM UTC

ok, the new look is cool, but couldn't there be an option to choose white background over grey? the grey hurts my eyes after ten minutes...
also the

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1. Rebecca Fri 11 Nov 2011 09:58PM UTC
  
  If you go to "skins" on your profile, then click "create skin" and then "use wizard instead?", you can enter "white" as background color. Give that skin a name, save it and "use" it.
  
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2. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 01:45AM UTC
  
  @linnet:
  There is also a premade skin at http://ao3.org/skins/922 that is the Archive Skin 2.0 with white backgrounds.
  May I ask what your second paragraph was? It appears our HTML Sanitizer might have eaten part of it.
  Sam J.
  Support
  
  Last Edited Sat 12 Nov 2011 01:51AM UTC
  
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3. 1. linnet (Guest) Sat 12 Nov 2011 07:08AM UTC
    
    many thanks, Rebecca & Sam. will try that. sorry to have the second comment all cranky, just opened the site and groaned a bit in despair at the grey, but the skins look like they'll do the trick.
    there wasn't a second paragraph, or, well, there wasn't supposed to be, I didn't realize I hadn't deleted it all, so no worries. (it was going to be a complaint about the margins but then I realized I could just resize the browser screen, so why whine about that too! but I see the margins are fixable with skins too, that's great)
    
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  2. 1. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 07:11AM UTC
      
      No worries - I just figured you had included code, and it became obscured.
      We should shortly have a post showing how to use the Parent feature in Skin Creation, which will let you use the "Workings Margins" subskin on top of "Snow" (or any other combination)!
      
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light_source Fri 11 Nov 2011 09:48PM UTC

Why do all the new skins look pretty much alike?
I miss my old, simple skin with wider margins - easier to read with more white space.
I think we need skins from a variety of creators.
Also, I've tried resetting/altering the skins and my changes don't work; everything reverts to the default look.
UGH.
It wasn't broken, so why has it been changed?

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1. carmenta Fri 11 Nov 2011 11:02PM UTC
  
  This. So very much.
  
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2. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 02:00AM UTC
  
  One of the major reasons for the redesign was to fix the back-end code, which had become an intricate and rather broken mess. This redesign simplifies and renders consistent a lot of collisions, so hopefully more people will be able to quickly make more skins. There are still a few bugs in implementation being found that the Coders are working on.
  We do have a margined version of the default site skin at Workings Max Width.
  If you're having problems with a specific skin, go ahead and let us know!
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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3. 1. light_source Sat 12 Nov 2011 02:44AM UTC
    
    Workings Max Width *does not* give me wide margins (12- 12.5%) in either IE or Google Chrome.
    Nor have I been able to establish this simple style by writing my own css.
    Everything reverts back to the default.
    Not happy at all with this change.
    
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  2. 1. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 03:19AM UTC
      
      Ah. Max Width is designed to limit the column width to a certain width. My apologies. We don't have a skin fragment (yet) with dynamic margins. Until we do, I can try to walk you through changing it.
      In the Skins area, click on Create Skin.
      Give the skin a name.
      The CSS should be: #workskin { margin: 12% 12%; }
      Click on Advanced, make sure "What it does" is set to "add on to Archive Skin"
      Currently, there's a bug with how skins inherit from parents, and we are working on better documentation.
      
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versy Fri 11 Nov 2011 10:03PM UTC

I wish the margins were larger in the fic posts, it's really hard to read a wall of text pretty much the length of my screen on a grey background. plus the font is small (everywhere, in this comment box for example it's absolutely tiny). I suppose I have to go look for a skin that helps me but I kind of feel like the default of a site shouldn't force me to do so.

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1. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 02:11AM UTC
  
  There is a narrow column version of the skin at Workings Max Width that may work better on much wider screens.
  The font size and face is one of the more common feedback responses, and has been passed on to AD&T to consider.
  If you have any other suggestions, let us know!
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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drinkthehalo Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:08PM UTC

Thanks so much for your work! :)

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1. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:33AM UTC
  
  Thanks for your kind words - a lot of development went into fixing the old underlying code. I'll make sure your words are passed on to the devs.
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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