Thread: MumsOnline - Come see the New Look!

Good Sunday all!

Sorry for my silence of late... Due to the new government and the funding streams 'issues' - all public sectors are feeling the pinch which is causing me to not have the time I'd like to invest in MumsOnline at present. Something, I hope to rectify quite soon!

Well, you may be wondering why things look a little different... When I have more than 5 minutes, I will expand more into what is going on... However I didn't want to just change something so drastically without at least saying why.

Since our inception, I have always tried to go to great lengths to make us 'look' different to the standard "off the shelf" sort of forums out there. In the beginning, this was fine as I worked for myself and in-between contracts I had all the time in the world to give to MumsOnline and to you - however, since entering the "9-to-5" world a couple years ago, my time has become more and more limited.

The last 'redesign' we had last New Year's was a custom job which I paid quite a bit of money for which worked wonders for us as it meant I didn't have to struggle with code for hours on end and the site looked nice to boot. However, over the course of the year, vBulletin (the makers of the forum software) have released several incremental upgrades to the software. The upgrades help provide security to both the server by preventing neer'do'wells from accessing the hardware and also from accessing details about your accounts here on MumsOnline. So, obviously I have to upgrade when/as they are released. The downside to remaining vigilant is that with each upgrade, the way the core code is written causes conflict with the design templating engine and things need to move around.

In itself, this isn't a problem as if I used the "default" design with vBulletin, these moves are taken into account and nothing 'breaks'. But, since we have always used a custom design, upgrades have always been the death of me in terms of chasing down where the breaks occur and trying to fix them accordingly.

This time around - I found a commercially available design that wasn't a million miles away from our old "look" so I've been playing with it for awhile and it seems quite good. It's light on design so means quicker load times, and because it's commercially supported, when vBulletin upgrades its core code, the skin developer will also make the changes necessary to his/her work to ensure compatibility.

Right, now that I've rambled on forever and a day - I'll leave you to it for now... Please have a look around and let me know if you notice anything broken. I have updated the site to the newest versions of the software that power us, including the addons that run in the background and added this new design... Now, I shall dissolve back into the mists for a bit but will be back when work settles down!

I think it looks great Sabian, loving the colours, thanks

understood that totally Sabian Yeah right. You're fab for keeping MO going and we all wub you xx

nice clean look, like it alot

Very pretty, I like it.

Although I have a big gap at the top, just above the 'reply to thread' button. Hm. Oh well. It's still pretty.

Originally Posted by xaulleo

Very pretty, I like it.

Although I have a big gap at the top, just above the 'reply to thread' button. Hm. Oh well. It's still pretty.

That gap is where an advert is to help make a few pennies for the site... If you have a gap, you're probably running some adblock software which strips the advert out but still shows the "white space" where it should go if that makes sense.

the front page is not working for me..... it just says it is re directing me...... ?

Ahh, that's a new development....

Off I go!

Mine won't load it says redirecting and keeps trying but not getting anywhere iyswim, have to get on M O via facebook, Edgetop is having the same problem too.

Well, truth be known, this is a new issue and it isn't affecting just you - it is a global problem.

I am currently going through the code to try to figure out what is causing it.

Sorry, I am working on it - I wasn't aware of it until Neddy mentioned it which means what ever 'broke' it happened a while ago and now I have to go through everything seperately to find it.