Release notes - release 0.8.9 | Archive of Our Own

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2011-11-11 21:48:17 UTC

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Welcome to Release 0.8.9. Elz, Enigel, erda, Jenny S-T, lim, Lucy P, Naomi, Phoenix, Pixel, Rebecca, Sidra and sarken contributed code to this release, which was tested by our awesome testing team: sarken, via_ostiense, Jenny S-T, Rebecca, Enigel, phoenix, Kylie, Irene, Jenn_Calaelen, Bridget, Zebra, Tai, linbot, mumble, XParrot, alasen, Naomi

Highlights!

Site Design Overhaul

The Archive's look has changed a lot, whoa! The amazing lim has completely overhauled our CSS and HTML.

A big reason for this change is to make it much easier to write skins for the Archive. This is important not just for people who want to use skins, but because it will enable us to make a variety of skins ourselves for different uses (even for users who aren't logged in!) and also allow us to keep developing and improving the Archive's interface in future without breaking skins all over the place.

If you want to update your existing skin or are interested in making new skins, you may want to start by browsing the new Archive default skin (it's broken down into lots of different modular parents, making it easier to see what each bit does). We'll shortly be posting a list of the new skins with some info on what they all do!

Accessibility

Another crucial reason for the change has been to improve the accessibility of the Archive. Among the changes we have put in:

Autocomplete now using ARIA managed focus, making it accessible to more screenreaders.
ARIA roles have been expanded throughout.
Lots of forms have been chunked up into fieldsets, making it easier to do a task at a time.
The dashboard has been reorganised and chunked into different sets of tasks.
Tables have been ruthlessly eradicated where inappropriate and remaining ones have been made accessible.
Lots of instructions have been rewritten using simpler, shorter sentences.
Labels have been made more consistent.
Extensive landmarks have been written throughout
All form elements should now be labeled and/or titled for screenreader access.
Buttons should be easier to mouse to for people with lower mobility.
A user icon is now in the header which you can always click to to get home, for more visual/spatial users.
All navigation jumpable to with headings and roles.
A bunch of other small tweaks have been made to make the Archive more customisable and more amenable to being viewed with unusual browser settings.

We continue to actively seek input from readers and users with any accessibility problems! If you are browsing with assistive devices and something doesn't work for you or is frustrating, please let us know. We know you probably hear this a lot, but we hope the work we've already done will demonstrate that accessibility is a genuine concern for us. We might not always get it 100% right, but we'll keep working to improve.

Skin Parents

You can now chain together multiple skins by making one skin the parent of another. This is particularly useful if you want to replace instead of override the archive site skin, because you can use parts of the default skin as parents of your own skin, and only replace the parts you need to change.

IE-Only Skins and Media Type Skins

You can now create skins that just have overrides for Internet Explorer, which will be loaded up using conditional comments. So if you're making a public skin that you would like IE users to be able to enjoy also, you don't have to put in hacks -- just put the IE fixes in their own skin, and put it into your list of parents.

You can also now make custom skins for different media types -- for instance, for "speech" to be loaded up only by screenreaders, or "print" to be loaded up only for printing, or "handheld" to be loaded up for small-screen mobile devices.

Tag Sets

Before this release, if you were running a challenge and wanted to restrict your participants to picking from a particular set of tags, you would put those tags into your challenge settings. No longer! You will now put the tags into a tag set instead.

Tag Set Features:

Reusable across multiple challenges.
Shared with other users.
Take nominations which you can then review.
Let users see your tag set in progress during nominations or not as you choose.
Can include tags that haven't been wrangled (this means you can use brand-new tags, or tags which suit your own challenge's preferred terminology).
Let you specify which fandom character and relationship tags belong to (which will make those options get loaded automatically in the signup form for your participants).

Known Issues

See our Known Issues page.

Release Details

Features

Design overhaul
Tag sets
News posts can now be tagged and filtered by tags & language
Comments on multi-chaptered words now include information which chapter the comments was left on, to avoid confusion in "view full work" mode
Added security measures to the login process: after 50 failed login attempts, the account will be locked down for 5 minutes

Bug fixes

you can now delete a work without Javascript enabled, huzzah!
fixed a bug that would display works as incomplete even after the last chapter was added
there was a bug where deleting a work with a lot of chapters would take too long or time out, this has been fixed
fixed broken links in the sitemap
fixed several bugs and workflow isses with the new autocomplete functionality after feedback from tag wranglers
when posting a work, tabbing into the fandom field would enter the first autocomplete suggestion that would come up, this has been changed to leave the field blank when tabbing further
added author information to the body of feed items for tag subscriptions (so they wouldn't only show up in a byline like the author of a blog post)
fixed the character counter for the Notes fields on the "post new" form
bad class names in work skins (e.g. names containing special characters like $) would be stripped from the skin but left intact in the work body, this has been fixed
added a link to the FAQ item about importing from the "import new" page
after a failed import, the error message would stick around when going to another page, this has been fixed
more automated tests

Admin:
- notice banners for admin announcements can now include links and basic formatting tags
- made the links to translations of news posts visually clearer
- fixed an issue with notifications for comments on news posts being sent out twice
- made sure that comments marked as spam by an admin are not visible to users anymore

Bookmarks:
- fixed the display of "most recent bookmarks" for a work on the bookmarks index
- fixed a bug that would lead to unexpected behavior when trying to bookmark a work in IE 9
- the help popup for the bookmark symbols didn't work on the main bookmark index, this has been fixed

Challenges:
- the list of open challenges now exludes moderated and closed collections
- brought some misleading timeframe information (such as, "SIGNUP PERIOD IS OVER") in line with actual start and end dates
- you can now sign up to a challenge with multiple requests without Javascript
- fixed a bug where drafts of an assignment would show up as the title of a posted work for the challenge mods
- pinch-hitters now receive an email notification of their assignment
- fixed a bug that would allow you to create subcollections in a subcollection (potentially breaking things) and made the error message clearer
- added a link to the "Manage Items" page from challenge options to make it more obvious that you can reveal stories one by one
- tweaked collection settings into a more logical order (compulsory items first)
- deleting a signup from the My Signups would redirects to the Collection profile, it now redirects to the /signups page for gift exchanges or the prompt overview for memes

Prompt Memes:
- added an option to give prompts a title; this can be turned on by the prompt meme owner by allowing/requiring a title in the request settings and affects the prompts overview and the list of assignments when posting a new work
- you can now see the number of total prompts in a meme on the Collections index and
- fixed a bug where posting to fill a prompt would persistently try and fill all prompts by that user (if you claimed more than one), leading to wonky results

Downloads:
- ampersands in work titles and work content would lead to missing characters in .epub files, this has been fixed
- fixed a problem with .epub files for works with very long chapters; made sure that they're split into small enough chunks to work with all e-readers

Lots and lots of display fixes:
- made the site, especially the posting interface, more usable in IE 6 and up
- fixed several alignment and spacing issues across browsers
- fixed some bugs where HTML code would show up as text
- generally prettied things up

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(Previous comment deleted.)
1. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:04AM UTC
  
  We've received a lot of feedback regarding the new skin and are sending all of it to our Design committee as we move forward. As you find specific criticisms, go ahead and submit a ticket to us !
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
  Last Edited Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:08AM UTC
  
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Zebra Fri 11 Nov 2011 11:01PM UTC

I'm still rather pissed that the default skin, the one skin all guests see (and how many will really find the skin changer) and all users have by default, the most likelist to be most used skin, screws up my avatar, because apparently now everybody has to have the AO3 logo as a background to their avatar, whether they want it or not.

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1. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:08AM UTC
  
  We've received quite a bit of feedback regarding the skins, including the issue with how the default icon shows through translucent or non-square icons. We are compiling a list for the Coders to review as they consider further revisions to the interface. If you haven't already submitted a ticket, please do so!
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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Laugana (Guest) Fri 11 Nov 2011 11:28PM UTC

I browse the site on my iPhone and everything is too big now. It means I have to constantly scroll down as I can only get about 9 lines on my 2 inch screen. Is there any way to change it?

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1. Alex (Guest) Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:20AM UTC
  
  I agree. The text is far too big to be comfortably read from an iPhone. It does not make for an enjoyable reading experience.
  
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2. 1. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:14AM UTC
    
    We’re finding there are some bugs with the mobile overlay implementation, as in it’s not overlaying the base interface correctly, resulting in oddly sized text. We’re working on getting the interface fixed as fast as possible.
    Sam J.
    AO3 Support
    
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3. frogspace Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:37AM UTC
  
  Me too. None of the skins work properly on my iPhone. All the buttons are floating somewhere at the top (and have different shapes too, some are rounded, some have sharper edges), my icon is as big on my phone as it is on my screen at home, and the margins squish everything this way and that way, which means browsing is next to impossible. If I want to read a story, I have to switch to the html version under Download to get anything readable. On the other hand, it looks great on my home screen.
  
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4. 1. PinkCathodeCat Sat 12 Nov 2011 03:54AM UTC
    
    Android (HTC Desire S) is much the same -- the buttons are all over the place, and this is the DEFAULT skin. Considering I reported these issues through a Staffer earlier in the year when this was pre-test deploy, I am not happy.
    
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  2. 1. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:28AM UTC
      
      I am sorry to hear that - we do have bugs with the mobile overlay implementation. We’re working on getting this interface fixed as fast as possible.
      Also, I apologize that your comments were unheeded. There will most likely be more testing done on it soon, so if you'd like to sign up as a Tester, go ahead and contact Volcom!
      Sam J.
      AO3 Support
      
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  3. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:16AM UTC
    
    I'm sorry that you're having to use the download to view it correctly. We’re finding there are some significant bugs with the mobile overlay implementation, as in it’s not overlaying the base interface correctly, resulting in oddly sized buttons and strange overlaps. We’re working on getting this interface fixed as fast as possible.
    Sam J.
    AO3 Support
    
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5. Selarne (Guest) Sat 12 Nov 2011 04:55AM UTC
  
  I agree, the site now looks really bad on my iPod. I can't read in this format and even browsing is difficult because everything is so big now it takes tons of scrolling.
  
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6. 1. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:17AM UTC
    
    We’re finding there are some bugs with all of the mobile overlay implementations, as in it’s not overlaying the base interface correctly, resulting in oddly sized buttons and text. We’re working on getting this interface fixed as fast as possible.
    Sam J.
    AO3 Support
    
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7. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:12AM UTC
  
  We’re finding there are some bugs with the mobile overlay implementation, as in it’s not overlaying the base interface correctly, resulting in oddly sized buttons and strange overlaps. We’re working on getting this interface fixed as fast as possible.
  If you have any other suggestions, let us know!
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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8. disprove Sat 12 Nov 2011 10:46AM UTC
  
  Also chiming in to say that the site looks bloody huge now on my iPad with Safari as well. Like, there are barely any sentences that don't get wrapped into two lines or more. It seems like the site is convinced I'm using a smartphone or something and trying to compensate for what it thinks is a really small screen. I gave up on the skins and just started using a Readability bookmarklet. Would love to do away with that though and just return to how ao3 used to display fics.
  
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9. 1. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:35AM UTC
    
    The Coders are working on an emergency fix-and-deploy for the mobile site bugs as we speak, and are hoping to have it out within the day. Hopefully that should fix it!
    Sam J.
    AO3 Support
    
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  2. 1. disprove Mon 14 Nov 2011 02:42PM UTC
      
      It still looks the same to me so I'm guessing the deployed fix-it didn't work. (I'm mostly all right with how the site looks on my laptop however.) Still, thanks very much for the reply. Hope you guys haven't been cursed out too much by irate fanficcers. :p
      
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    2. 1. samjohnsson Mon 14 Nov 2011 02:46PM UTC
        
        As they tend to do, the fix is seeming to need another fix (especially for tablets), but our Coders are still working hard at it! If you have any specific questions, let us know!
        Sam J.
        AO3 Support
        
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fprintmoon (Gallicka) Fri 11 Nov 2011 11:33PM UTC

I love the new layout. It's very pretty and clean. ♥ However, the story content looks abit weird though, since it's positioned so much more to the left than the summary & note section. And the user-icon looks abit..big. XD Anyway, I was wondering...is there a way to track updates? A way to subscribe to a WIP fic?

Last Edited Fri 11 Nov 2011 11:36PM UTC

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1. Qem Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:07AM UTC
  
  You can subscribe to authors by going to their profile but not individual stories.
  
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2. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:32AM UTC
  
  Thank you for your kinds words. I'm not sure I understand what you're describing, though - can you email us a screenshot to otw-support (a) transformativeworks.org ?
  Unfortunately, no, we haven't implemented story tracking; however, as Qem suggests, you could subscribe to the author directly.
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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wiseorfool Fri 11 Nov 2011 11:36PM UTC

"Added security measures to the login process: after 50 failed login attempts, the account will be locked down for 5 minutes"
50?! Yikes, that's a LOT of attempts. At least drop it to something more reasonable like 10--most sites I use, including fannish ones, give you 3 attempts before you're locked out for a minimum of an hour. 50 attempts/5 minutes really isn't terribly secure.
My biggest problem immediate problem is contrast issues. On the default and plaintext skins, I find the contrast between text and background too low, making it hard to read (as someone who develops eyestrain easily, that's kind of a big problem). While I can appreciate efforts to make the site more accessible (always awesome), I fail to see why an accessible design can't also be attractive.
I've also noticed that when I click the search bar up top in Chrome (my browser of choice) and IE8, it changes to the header background color (dark red). Since the font in this bar...appears to be red? (I can't see it clearly enough to tell), it makes it impossible to see what I'm typing. (There's a screenshot of the issue as seen in Chrome here: http://i40.tinypic.com/11twvid.png ) When I click away (not click on the search tab, but just click elsewhere on the page), it switches back to the light grey, but how many people are going to type a search, click away, click back to fix any spelling mistakes, click away again, and THEN click search? In IE8 two of the header buttons were entirely unclickable (Works and People), but work fine in Chrome and Firefox.
All that aside, I like the tag sets quite a lot--what a great and useful idea. I might not be involved in challenges, but I don't need to be to see the benefit of that. I also like the elimination of tables as much as possible and the Dashboard redesign does make it easier to see what goes where. Being able to click on my icon to get to my home is also nice, though I would suggest adding a smaller "my home" link under the image (or something similar) as that wasn't intuitive (I had no idea it was possible until I read the release notes.). Overall, it's a nice job, it just needs a few tweaks here and there.

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1. jennyst Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:25AM UTC
  
  50 attempts is enough to discourage or stop bots who are trying to break a password by dictionary attack, without annoying users who simply mistype (which can be an accessibility issue if the limit is set as low as 3). It's the best compromise we came up with, but is easily adjustable, so can be reviewed and changed in the future.
  To get a white background, there is a skin that does it: http://archiveofourown.org/skins/922. You can also change both the background and text colour yourself using the wizard (http://archiveofourown.org/skins/new?wizard=true).
  Thanks for your feedback on the default - AD&T is taking it all into account as we revise the design.
  Which version of Chrome are you using? I'm also using Chrome and don't see the red search bar issue. The safest is probably to send that in to Support so that they can log it as a bug, if you're happy to do that, so it doesn't get lost among all the comments here.
  Thank you for the encouragement, as well - it's much appreciated.
  Jenny
  AD&T committee member
  
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2. 1. wiseorfool Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:42AM UTC
    
    Thank you for the link to the skin in question; I was having trouble navigating through all of them. This does make the site MUCH easier to read!
    I'm using the most recent Chrome build (15, I think? So many versions!). I'll go ahead and submit to support.
    
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Poi Fri 11 Nov 2011 11:39PM UTC

I really like the new look (except for the default grey background; I've already switched to a different skin, but I really think it's an odd choice for the default). And I'm really glad that you're paying so much attention to accessibility. Thanks for all your work.

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1. samjohnsson Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:36AM UTC
  
  Thank you for your feedback - we collecting all the responses for our Coders to review. And yes, accessibility was one of the major reasons behind the redesign, so that going forward, the site can be rendered accessible more easily. If you note anything else, let us know!
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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ivyblossom Fri 11 Nov 2011 11:57PM UTC

Any way to add more margin to the story layout? Text running all across the screen like that isn't the best reading experience. Otherwise...yay accessibility!

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1. ratcreature Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:27AM UTC
  
  I wondered the same thing. On my wide screen laptop I'd love to have a button like ff.net gives you to just have the story text only half the width or something like that.
  
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2. 1. jennyst Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:03AM UTC
    
    You can add it using the skins wizard (http://archiveofourown.org/skins/new?wizard=true), or the CSS is #chapters {
    margin: auto 3% 2.5em;
    padding: 0.5em 3% 0;
    }
    (Change 3% to whatever figure you want.)
    Jenny
    AD&T committee member
    
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  2. 1. ratcreature Sat 12 Nov 2011 09:49AM UTC
      
      Thank you!
      
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3. jennyst Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:02AM UTC
  
  You can add it using the skins wizard, or the CSS is #chapters {
  margin: auto 3% 2.5em;
  padding: 0.5em 3% 0;
  }
  Jenny
  AD&T committee member
  
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4. 1. Nana (Guest) Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:07PM UTC
    
    Not everyone know CSS. I have no idea what you just said. Not very user friendly expecting your users to know it.
    
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  2. 1. jennyst Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:37PM UTC
      
      Sorry about that. We don't expect all our users to know CSS, which is why we provide several alternative options with the new skins. I'll clarify a bit here, and there are more details in the tutorial posts (http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/179 and http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/178) but we're working on more explanations.
      If the only change you need is to the margins, there are several ways to do it, but the easiest is to go to http://archiveofourown.org/skins/913 and click "Use". If that's too wide or not wide enough, you can go to the wizard at http://archiveofourown.org/skins/new?wizard=true, type in a title and a margin width, click "Submit" and then "Use", and then edit it to get the amount you want.
      Hope this helps a bit, and do please ask if there's more that needs explaining.
      Jenny
      AD&T committee member
      
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    2. 1. ivyblossom Sat 12 Nov 2011 02:07PM UTC
        
        Tiny margins are a design faux pas, which is why I mentioned it.
        Magazine and book columns are narrow for physiological reasons: at normal reading distances, the eye’s span of acute focus is only about three to four inches wide, so designers try to keep dense passages of text in columns not much wider than that comfortable eye span. Wider lines of text require readers to move their heads slightly or use their eye muscles to track over the long lines of text. Readability suffers because on the long trip back to the left margin the reader may lose track of the next line. [from http://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/8-typography/3-legibility.html]
        I understand that I can tinker with the CSS myself and correct this problem, but as a fanfiction writer I want to know how the majority of readers are going to see my stories laid out. The previous layout was, I think, perfect for the web; I'm saddened to see that the new default doesn't preserve that margin width. Is there any move toward fixing it in the default view? I understand the accessibility issues here, but that's why you have multiple low-vision skins. The default skin is what 99% of your users are going to encounter, and there are usability issues with it as it is.
        
        Last Edited Sat 12 Nov 2011 02:08PM UTC
        
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      2. CrunchySalad Sat 12 Nov 2011 03:32PM UTC
        
        I agree. The first thing I did was change my skin, as I found the default skin hard to look at. But the default skin is what every new user to the site will encounter, so it's important that it is usable and inviting.
        
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        samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:58AM UTC
        
        (response to the upthread comment, but I wanted to make sure you saw it - Sam J.)
        
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        Subarukun Sat 12 Nov 2011 06:20PM UTC
        
        I absolutely agree! The marging width on stories was perfect the way it was - for both archive users and casual readers that stumble over the site.
        
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        samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:58AM UTC
        
        (response to the upthread comment, but I wanted to make sure you saw it - Sam J.)
        
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        wiseorfool Sat 12 Nov 2011 07:27PM UTC
        
        I agree. I was able to puzzle with the wizard and change the margins myself to a much denser, easier to read block, but what about readers who aren't members of the site? I know this would have turned me off from the Archive--narrow margins are one of the things that turned me of from ff.net ages ago, after all (though I understand there's a feature now that allows readers to adjust margins?).
        
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        samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:59AM UTC
        
        (response to the upthread comment, but I wanted to make sure you saw it - Sam J.)
        
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        Luzula Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:56PM UTC
        
        Agree!
        
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        samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:59AM UTC
        
        (response to the upthread comment, but I wanted to make sure you saw it - Sam J.)
        
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        samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:57AM UTC
        
        Hi!
        Thank you for your feedback! The major portion of the redesign was to fix the codebase so we could be more fully accessible. Based on the user feedback especially regarding visual accessibility, the coders are adjusting the default skin and should be implementing it, along with other things, in an emergency deploy in the next day. Let us know what you think!
        Sam J.
        AO3 Support
        
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        CrunchySalad Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:53PM UTC
        
        Thanks for all the hard work you guys are putting into this; it can't be easy, dealing with all this feedback. Hopefully it helps to know that you're only getting less-than-positive comments because people love the site so much and want to see it improve.
        As for the new default, it's great that you made the grey background white. The margins on the works still seem a bit small to me, but that could be just my personal preference. It's still an improvement from having no margins at all. Otherwise it looks great (although I'm using Firefox on a Mac, so I have no clue how it would look for, say, Mobile users).
        
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        samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 10:17PM UTC
        
        Thank you for the kind words. We do want upgrades to be a positive experience, and apologize that this one wasn't completely.
        I spoke with the Coders last night/this morning when the patch went live, and the values for margin are supposed to be the same as from the 1.0 skin. We are still collecting feedback, though - what's your screen and browser width, if the margins are too narrow?
        Sam J.
        AO3 Support
        
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        CrunchySalad Sun 13 Nov 2011 11:31PM UTC
        
        Oh, there's no need to apologize! Every upgrade is going to have complaints (I imagine), and all of you have handled it very well. The Skins: A Love Story post the Lim wrote helped me a lot to make my own skin even though I have no knowledge of css.
        My screen/browser size is 1280. Like I said, the margins might be a matter of personal preference for me. My skin already takes care of the issue and I have no idea if other people feel the same way I do about the default margins.
        
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      3. (Previous comment deleted.)
      4. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 03:05AM UTC
        
        Hi again, Silencio:
        Thank you for all of your feedback during the site's beta process. We are taking note of it (see the upcoming revisions to the default site skin), and understand that it can be trying when something doesn't deploy properly. We are working on fixing it, as well as generating more documentation for all the features.
        Sam J.
        AO3 Support
        
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offkilter Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:02AM UTC

I haven't had a chance to see all the changes, but I noticed that the default text on my Blackberry is MUCH better now! I am hoping some of the formatting issues on my Kindle downloads will have been fixed by this upgrade too, but will report back.
As for the avatars, I wasn't logged in when I first came to see what you'd changed and could still see everyone's regular avatars, not the default AO3.
Thanks for all your work and dedication, guys!

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1. Zebra Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:27AM UTC
  
  Take a look at my avatar. I certainly didn't give it a white background or the grey hump or the grey twirly thing sticking of its left. That's the AO3 logo forced behind each and every avatar.
  
  Last Edited Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:32AM UTC
  
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2. 1. offkilter Sat 12 Nov 2011 04:13AM UTC
    
    Ah, I see what you mean. How odd!
    
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Laugana (Guest) Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:16AM UTC

Sorry, back again. The columns on this page are very narrow. When my screen is landscape I have an inch of text visible. When my screen is portrait, there's only 1cm width available. On most pages I have to keep zooming out because a scroll bar appears at the bottom of the screen which makes it awkward to scroll up and down because the page keeps moving in every which way direction. Sometimes the text under the header of the story has a super narrow column so you have to zoom in which creates that awkward scroll at at the bottom of the page, and after that you can still only view so many lines. If you speed read like I do, it makes for a very cumbersome reading experience. Sorry to be a negative nancy, but unless I can change it to something more comfortable, I'm going to have to brave fanfiction.net :(

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1. jennyst Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:19AM UTC
  
  If the narrow column is just on pages with the dashboard on the left, you can put the dashboard up the top and get a wider column using this skin: http://archiveofourown.org/skins/899
  I'm not sure if that's quite what you're after, from what you've said, so if you can give some more details, with example pages or screenshots, either here or to Support, we can help you create something that suits you better.
  Jenny
  AD&T committee member
  
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Laugana (Guest) Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:16AM UTC

Sorry, back again. The columns on this page are very narrow. When my screen is landscape I have an inch of text visible. When my screen is portrait, there's only 1cm width available. On most pages I have to keep zooming out because a scroll bar appears at the bottom of the screen which makes it awkward to scroll up and down because the page keeps moving in every which way direction. Sometimes the text under the header of the story has a super narrow column so you have to zoom in which creates that awkward scroll at at the bottom of the page, and after that you can still only view so many lines. If you speed read like I do, it makes for a very cumbersome reading experience. Sorry to be a negative nancy, but unless I can change it to something more comfortable, I'm going to have to brave fanfiction.net :(

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1. Laugana (Guest) Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:20AM UTC
  
  Sorry for the double post.
  
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Firerose Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:31AM UTC

Is it intentional that anyone who was already using a skin has now been put back on default? Is there any way of finding which skin one was previously using (or are the old ones no longer available?). I appreciate the effort to make the appearance more flexible but this text is HUGE on my usual monitor and a quick scan has failed to find a fix.

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1. Zebra Sat 12 Nov 2011 12:38AM UTC
  
  The older user-made ones have been all unapproved, since they got broken by the redesign. I don't know what happened to the non-user created ones.
  
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2. 1. Firerose Sat 12 Nov 2011 02:53AM UTC
    
    Aie! So no small text, as far as I can see.
    
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  2. 1. jennyst Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:11AM UTC
      
      You can adjust the font size (e.g. change it to 70%) by using the wizard: http://archiveofourown.org/skins/new?wizard=true
      We're working on reviewing the old skins to make them available again, or create new equivalents, but it's going to take a little while, I'm afraid.
      Jenny
      AD&T committee member
      
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    2. 1. Firerose Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:44AM UTC
        
        Thanks for this. I note that one can't seem to use wizard-generated css with the cut&paste skins css?
        
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      2. jennyst Sat 12 Nov 2011 09:12AM UTC
        
        That's correct, yes - the wizard wasn't upgraded with the rest, and doesn't integrate so well any more. However, you should be able to use a wizard skin as a parent for another skin if you want to stack them. Alternatively, the code the wizard produces is body, #main {font: 70%/1.125;} so you can use that with other CSS.
        
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smirnoffmule Sat 12 Nov 2011 01:25AM UTC

I'm also having trouble with the contrast on the default view. I'm really not sure that dark grey text on a light grey background is a friendly choice of default for people with poor vision.

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1. jennyst Sat 12 Nov 2011 08:13AM UTC
  
  Thanks for your feedback! AD&T is considering it all as we make changes to the default.
  In the meantime, you can change the background using this skin: http://archiveofourown.org/skins/922
  And you can change both background and text colours using the wizard: http://archiveofourown.org/skins/new?wizard=true
  Jenny
  AD&T committee member
  
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2. 1. smirnoffmule Sat 12 Nov 2011 02:56PM UTC
    
    Ok, thank you for that. I've tried the wizard, and it's changed the background for my works (though the font suddenly seems much smaller than it used to be?) but the recent works page and the links boxes and the comment boxes are still grey text on a grey background.
    I know you guys have a lot on your plates right now, but since you do ask for feedback, I would like to say that I'm not really finding all this skins stuff very user-friendly either. I'm mostly here to read and post fic, and I prefer using the site's default, partly because I don't the skills to super-customise stuff (I barely even know what CSS means, and all your How To posts are going right over my head) and partly because I prefer the view I have of my works to be the same as most visitors will have, so I can see what they see and spot any potential problems. It's cool all this custom stuff is there for people who want it, I guess, but all I'd really like would be a default I can actually read. I don't usually struggle with websites' default views and your old one was fine for me, so I don't think my requirements are particularly special. I'm happy to hear you are making changes, and I really hope you will consider a more accessible default colour contrast.
    
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  2. 1. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:48AM UTC
      
      Hiya - thank you for your feedback. There are bugs affecting the functionality of the interface that are making it less friendly than designed. But we are collecting all the feedback, as we're still in beta and will most likely have many future revisions.
      I do want to note that we are going to have a redeploy tonight that should significantly alter the background colors back toward white, across the board. Let us know what you think!
      Sam J.
      AO3 Support
      
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    2. 1. smirnoffmule Sun 13 Nov 2011 03:20PM UTC
        
        I see it now. Thank you, that's much much easier to read.
        
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    3. Lady_Ganesh Sun 13 Nov 2011 03:52PM UTC
      
      Agreed. I just went to the wizard from reading these comments, and...man, that looks way too much like work to just make a few tweaks. I'm just going to stay with the skin I'm using, which is imperfect but acceptable. (And I have done a little custom CSS.) I don't use this site like LiveJournal, I use it as an archive. I don't want to tweak, I want to read.
      
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Laugana (Guest) Sat 12 Nov 2011 02:31PM UTC

Here are some images of what I see on my iPhone:
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a226/Laugana/IMG_0120.png
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a226/Laugana/IMG_0121.png
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a226/Laugana/IMG_0122.png
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a226/Laugana/IMG_0123.png

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1. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:44AM UTC
  
  The mobile site interface was in fact a whole mess of bugs. The coders are putting the final touches on fixes for it and will have an emergency deploy within the day. Let us know if you're still having issues tomorrow!
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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botherd Sat 12 Nov 2011 02:37PM UTC

I already left feedback using the support form about the fact that the One Point Faux skin doesn't actually mimic the old style very well (different font, text stretched all the way across the screen) but now I've found the skin wizard I guess I can fix some of those problems myself. Just one question - what was the old font that AO3 used to use? Because it was so much nicer than this new one. Thanks!
(But I do appreciate that these changes are being made for accessibility reasons, and I think that's awesome.)

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1. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:52AM UTC
  
  Hi, botherd!
  One of our Coders went into her archives and found the code
  body { background: #fffef9; color: #222; font: 100%/1.125 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }
  from the old site's CSS. And the Coders are addressing some of the issues with 1.Faux, so hopefully it will be improved soon.
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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2. 1. botherd Sun 13 Nov 2011 11:32AM UTC
    
    Hi, thanks for the response. Unfortunately when I paste that into the 'create skin' box I get an error message (I don't think it likes the 100%/1.125 part) and I don't really know enough about CSS to fix it, although I'm going to try and mess around a bit and see if I can figure it out. I'm really glad that you're listening to everyone's feedback and making changes to the default skin though - thanks for all your help.
    
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  2. 1. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 11:35AM UTC
      
      The collapsed code has been working for some and not for others. The expanded version is
      body {
      background: #fffef9;
      color: #222;
      font-size: 100%;
      line-height: 1.125;
      Font-face: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; }
      If that doesn't work, let use know!
      Sam J.
      AO3 Support
      
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    2. 1. botherd Sun 13 Nov 2011 11:44AM UTC
        
        That didn't work either (I think it's actually the font-face part it doesn't like) but when it put it into the wizard it did go through okay. The font is still showing up as the new one in some places (summary and notes, I think) but it's okay in the main body of a fic.
        
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      2. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 12:34PM UTC
        
        Argh. And this is why I should have an upper limit of CSS my eyes see in a day.
        font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
        Sam J.
        AO3 Support
        
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        botherd Sun 13 Nov 2011 01:23PM UTC
        
        Thanks! You've been really helpful.
        
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sallymn Sun 13 Nov 2011 09:57AM UTC

Dear god, the new skins are one and all hideous and harder to read... and your instructions on how to 'improve' them are extremely user-unfriendly for those of us without much tech experience.

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1. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 12:37PM UTC
  
  Thank you for your feedback - the archive interface is still under heavy revision while we're in beta. Which specific facets do you not like?
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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navaan Sun 13 Nov 2011 10:07AM UTC

Like most of the people giving feedback here, I'm not fond of the new skins feature and hope you'll make improvments. I'd rather have a clean, simple and readable default view than the possibilty to costumise. Seems a bit like unecessary shenanigans to me, to be honest.
But I still want to thank you for all the hard work were accesibilty is concerned and I love that it's now possible to filter language via a drop down menue and I appreciate the improvements to challenges and promt memes! That'll come in hany in the future!

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1. samjohnsson Sun 13 Nov 2011 12:44PM UTC
  
  We are still working on the new skins feature, so any specific feedback you can give us will be highly appreciated so that we can get it working well while we're still in beta.
  And thank you for your kind words - I will make sure the people involved see them!
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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2. 1. navaan Mon 14 Nov 2011 12:09PM UTC
    
    Most of the things that really bugged me (like the margins on story text) have been changed already. Thank you guys for being so quick to act.
    Other than that I think the customization is hard for people (even with the wizard), who don't understand much about skins and webpages in general. Fiddling with journal styles and CSS is something many people with an lj-background do, but I'm not sure that is true for users with other backgrounds and explanations should be geared towards them and use a language that is easy to understand.
    The default view is what everybody sees when he comes here without being a user. It should be at least working for them. So working on the accessibilty of that should have priotity.
    All in all I think most people were annoyed by the bugginess of the deploy and the way it was sprung on them, but personally I think the team handled the hours after the deploy very well.
    
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  2. 1. samjohnsson Mon 14 Nov 2011 12:22PM UTC
      
      It's good to hear that you like the new design. The documentation is under review - versions were put up as a stopgap measure, but we do have plans to significantly improve them.
      Overall, the entire process has been a learning experience for everyone involved.
      Sam J.
      AO3 Support
      
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Nele Sun 13 Nov 2011 01:08PM UTC

In case this is useful: on a 7-inch Galaxy Tab, the text of fics looks very nice -pleasant margins, good size. The navigation seems to have similar problems to what others have said here about mobile displays, with buttons in strange places and such.
Thanks for the hard work!
EDIT: Wait, seeing words in titles and chapter titles being cut up in odd places now. I'm not sure if something changed or I only just noticed.

Last Edited Sun 13 Nov 2011 02:15PM UTC

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haruka Sun 13 Nov 2011 07:40PM UTC

I can't find anything positive about these changes. I liked have a left-justified margin without everything being shoved to the centre and the new layout looks awful in IE with parts overlapping over other parts (and NO, I won't change browsers. IE is the only one that holds my font size consistently on all sites.) I never cared less about using different skins, so this change does nothing for me.

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1. samjohnsson Mon 14 Nov 2011 02:51AM UTC
  
  Thank you for your feedback. IE does have some specific quirks with how it implements CSS (no browser is 100% standards-compliant), and we do have some glitches as a result that are still being worked out. If you submit a trouble ticket with the flaws you notice (if you haven't already), we'd be appreciative!
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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ebonyfeather Sun 13 Nov 2011 10:14PM UTC

Re: the new skins. I can see why you've changed them, for ease of creating new skins etc, but I liked my old one as it was much clearer, especially the layout of the buttons at the top and having text links to access my account, post, log out etc, rather than an icon which doesn't fit in neatly onto the header bar.
The 'One Point Faux' looks similar, but for some reason that isn't showing my user name and account information. It shows the top half of my user name and then blank space underneath. If anyone knows how to fix this, I'd be grateful. Also, my old skin had a black header on that same design and, again, if anyone can tell me how to change that...
Please bear in mind that I have no idea how to work css- I can copy and paste into the bits that someone tells me to, but that's the extent of my knowledge in that area!

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1. samjohnsson Mon 14 Nov 2011 02:59AM UTC
  
  Hi! Thank you for the feedback on the skins. We're still taking all opinions on them.
  I'm not sure I understand what you're describing regarding 1.Faux. I do know it's under heavy adjustment, so hopefully we can resolve the issues soon. May I ask what browser you're using?
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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Firerose Mon 14 Nov 2011 01:22AM UTC

I know this is kind of picky, but I've successfully used the wizard to change my default text font to one that's a lot more readable. However, the old font still shows in various places eg all index information, summary, comments. Is there any easy way of changing this?

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1. samjohnsson Mon 14 Nov 2011 03:30AM UTC
  
  There are some flaws with the wizard still that are still being worked on. As for changing all the fonts, unfortunately, there isn't a single call for that, as there are quite a few places the font is listed in the CSS code.
  Sam J.
  AO3 Support
  
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