Welcome to SFF.Network. We're just getting started.

TL;DR: We've upgraded our forum, which will unlock lots of new features! As a part of this, SFF Forum is now merged into SFF Network, and the two are now one website and online experience. The website as it looks and feels now is mostly the 'default' setting of our new template; this will be updated and refined over the next few weeks. If you encounter bugs or other issues, flag them here and we will work to address them as quickly as possible.

Hey all,

I'm pleased to share that we've successfully updated our forum today! This release is the result of considerable work behind the scenes, much of which isn't visible to end users. That said, it's the sizable effort culminating into today's release that will enable us to begin development work on some exciting stuff that you will be able to see, use, and enjoy.

Here's what's new as of today:

1. SFF Forum and SFF Network are now one and the same. Our newsfeed and forum are one unified website, and will imminently share deep integration, such as native forum threads for comment sections. Our domain name will also soon be updated to sff.network (though smallformfactor.net will continue to work)
2. Our website has a new interface. Our focus for today's release was to transition the forum to a new platform, and as such the look and feel we have today is merely a sign of what's to come. Expect a bunch of changes and refinements as we turn towards creating the ideal user experience and functionality for the community, atop of our new technology stack.
3. A bunch of new features are now available. From native support of high-DPI screens, to emoji support, to tables (FINALLY), to inline Giphy GIFs in our post editor, there are all sorts of new functions of the forum that members can enjoy, right away.

Here's what to expect in the next few weeks:

1. Changes to our Patreon and supporter tiers. Just as we've merged our newsfeed and forum, we will be unifying the ways in which community members can support our content and our forum. We will be retiring our Patreon account and making significant changes and investments in the feature set we offer to existing and new supporters, who will now be backing our content as well as our infrastructure.
2. New content, with a focus on mediums beyond written posts. We'll have more to share later, but are excited to expand the scope of what content is published in the SFF.Network newsfeed!
3. A genuinely modern forum, with an interface and functionality set that leads the pack. Advanced searching, tagging and indexing; improved media and embed integration; better formatting tools and content; new capabilities and controls for creators; improved web performance... there's a lot we have in our backlog, and much of it will be deployed in the coming weeks.

As with any transition of this magnitude, there are inevitably going to be some bugs or regressions; I would ask that you flag any issues you encounter and let us know about it, such that we can address. Of course, feel free to share any questions or feedback here, as well!

We're excited for what's next. Welcome to SFF.Network!

MRW I didn't melt down our servers while updating everything:

Best,

– Joshua

 

[owliwar]

but hey
Gifs are nice
edit: is there a way to delete posts?

 

[Valantar]

A minor piece of feedback perhaps, but is there no longer a way to distinguish unread from read threads in the forums now? It might be that my brain is playing tricks on me, but I can't find any indication of whether a thread has new posts or not. There are "New" labels on the subforums, but not on threads ...


More generally, while I like the idea of having the most recently posted-in thread on the front page, the current layout is rather chaotic and messy. Mainly there's no visual distinction between what's a subforum header and what's a post/thread (where one definitely belongs within the other, and as such ought to be distinguishable). Several solutions are possible: shift the posts slightly to the right (like a multi-layer bullet point list):

dim the colors:

put a visible frame around the most recent post:

etc.

The grid layout also becomes very weird when there's an odd number of subforums within a group, with the bottom one twice as wide as the rest. Making them equal "boxes" would look better.

I also just noticed that it's near impossible to distinguish selected text from regular text in the text input fields thanks to both being a dark grey background with a brighter font.

 

[cleveland]

where's the option to ignore threads?

do i need to "rewatch" the threads i was watching or was it imported to this new DB along with my account's data?

 

[BaK]

This and this:

Also the miniscule avatar size.

I dont know anymore how to reply to comments

(Had to quote manually)

Default font is also very tiny on a monitor, probably because we are on SFF ?

 

[cleveland]

"(Had to quote manually)"

how to do it?

 

[ignsvn]

Yeah I find it difficult to adapt:
- Font size is a bit too small.
- Layout is somehow weird on mobile.
- Blocking a text in the text editor should use a different background color other than black.
- Too much text elements floating here and there.
- There isn't much contrast between different block elements.

Edit
- I'm not a paying supporter, but the banners (eg Silver Supporter) look a bit sad ?

 

[rfarmer]

I'm also curious to see how to quote and I am also not seeing a "new" tag on threads.

 

[BaK]

to start a quote: '['quote=cleveland']' or simply '['quote']'
to end a quote: '['/quote']'
all that without the '

 

[cleveland]

it's kinda sad that one of the best features of previous layout was removed...

 

[3lfk1ng]

Test

 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

One question. Will the main url now be sff.network?

Forgot to respond to this! Yes, at some point in the near future that will become the new root domain. All our existing domains will still work, however.

A minor piece of feedback perhaps, but is there no longer a way to distinguish unread from read threads in the forums now? It might be that my brain is playing tricks on me, but I can't find any indication of whether a thread has new posts or not. There are "New" labels on the subforums, but not on threads ...


More generally, while I like the idea of having the most recently posted-in thread on the front page, the current layout is rather chaotic and messy.

The grid layout also becomes very weird when there's an odd number of subforums within a group, with the bottom one twice as wide as the rest. Making them equal "boxes" would look better.

There will be some re-jiggering of the forum directory that should ease all of these issues. The defaults are not great.

where's the option to ignore threads?

Believe it or not, XenForo doesn't provide this functionality natively; we relied on a third-party add-on previously to do this. Since XF 1 add-ons aren't compatible with XF 2, that feature regressed as a part of this update. But I'm actively working on a replacement, since it's so handy. I should note that the original developer for the Ignore option did not/has not released a XF 2 version, so there is no way for us to bring over those configurations unfortunately.

A similar thing is going on with inline replies to posts, but I think that will be fixed tonight. Fixed!

-

One quick update: Just to ease the transition while I build a final template for the 'Dark Red' theme, I've developed a 'Dark Blue' theme and published it, so folks should be able to select that now on the bottom-left of all pages. I've also tweaked the typography sizing and line heights site wide to help with legibility a bit. I think this blue theme is substantially more legible and easier on the eyes; I'll be making tweaks in a similar vein with the Red theme.

 

[cleveland]

I've developed a 'Dark Blue' theme and published it, so folks should be able to select that now on the bottom-left of all pages

The blue theme is awesome. Good job!

 

[VegetableStu]

A similar thing is going on with inline replies to posts, but I think that will be fixed tonight. Fixed!

yay!!

 

[Brian_Buckley]

Personally a big fan of the redesign and the new color scheme. Obviously there are improvements to be made over time but I really like the shades of white and grey chosen for the text and background. The thing with dark themes is you actually don't want too much contrast as it becomes harder on the eyes. That's why off-whites and darker greys are nice like this.

 

[dcbn]

The "original" layout is back!

At least for me, It's much easier and comfortable to read as well to distinguish the sections and threads of the subforums.

Thank you and congratulations for all the work you have been doing!

Have a nice time you all.

 

[confusis]

For reference;

The red has been the main brand colour of SFF Network since we launched the news site way back. The blue was kept for the forum for posterity - this place isn't just a community but a new and reviews package as well!

Since we have been representing the red at events and in the content that really helps us draw in readers, it was time to simplify our branding structure. (believe it or not, we used to have red, blue, green, orange and purple cubes across sites).

So TLDR; the red is our brand, not just a styling choice.

If you haven't seen our review work before, check it out at the front page at SFF.Network

 

[Jaxel]

UI.X... eww...

 

[Jaxel]

Bug report:

Template public:_media_site_embed_imgur not found.

 

[Shinken1]

Bug report:

Template public:_media_site_embed_imgur not found.

I'm also seeing this error with embedded imgur & youtube links

 

[Windfall]

For reference;

The red has been the main brand colour of SFF Network since we launched the news site way back. The blue was kept for the forum for posterity - this place isn't just a community but a new and reviews package as well!

Since we have been representing the red at events and in the content that really helps us draw in readers, it was time to simplify our branding structure. (believe it or not, we used to have red, blue, green, orange and purple cubes across sites).

So TLDR; the red is our brand, not just a styling choice.

If you haven't seen our review work before, check it out at the front page at SFF.Network

Glad quoting has been fixed.

Love the blue theme, and I get the branding thing, but the blue is a LOT less harsh.