Modding on the Spectrum

Just made what is the first morning post (or perhaps I should say podcast) in The Coffee Pod, and reading it will give you a general idea of the direction that I am aiming for in that thread (provided that the HAL 9001 AI cooperates!). For those interested in paying it a visit, it can be found here:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1716740/ ... 5521725616

So drop on by and share some tales of space - and your expectations of Starfield!

I just finished writing and posting the Community News of June and July on Nexus Mods and AFK Mods. It contains a small teaser at the beginning of the text.
On Nexus Mods
On AFK Mods

I made a minor change to the layout of the board increasing the maximum width of the middle part (1650 pixels instead of 1152 pixels) and edited the header image accordingly. It's the beginning of a variety of changes which will happen in the next couple of weeks. These other changes revolve around the structure of the [ Modding ] hub and implementing a new discussion area. I will post an announcement with further details soon.

Edit:

Here's the announcement

This morning, inspired by my work on the collage yesterday, I got the idea to create different header images for each certain moddable games in the Modding hub. I can't wait to tinker in Photoshop when I get home after work. Maybe I give the subforums in question different link colors, too... I really missed this enthusiasm.

I finished the header images.

Starfield:
Skyrim:
Fallout 4:
I changed my mind and will assign new header images to the discussion areas of these three games for now which I call the "Big Three of the Spectrum".

Regarding the different link colors, I haven't quite decided yet. I need to test it in the test forum and see how it looks together with the header images. But how I implement the header images? It will probably result in me creating a separate theme for the forums in question (luckily, you can assign a different theme to a subforum in phpBB). This will also allow me to turn off the logo, the title of the site and site description on these pages so that the figures on the left side of each header image aren't covered.

Ohhh I like those. Nice work

Edit:
I was not content with the implementation of the new header images for the Skyrim and Fallout 4 discussion areas. The images were always loaded last (before they are loaded, a black background appears). I restored the previous design for the time being.

Edit 2:
The late loading of the header image seems to be a general issue. Before I made the middle part of the forum wider, the header image had a smaller file size and I didn't notice any issues with late loading (or is my memory false?). The images are loaded via the CSS background property and I recently learned that it's possible that images can take longer to load if they are implemented via the CSS background property. The bigger the file size of the image, the longer it takes to load. I tried preloading the header image but, strangely enough, this delayed the loading of other parts of the forum. That's why I removed the preloading code from the template file. I want to keep the wider header image. So I need to find another way to implement header images.

Edit 3:
I dug deeper in the internet and found some helpful information regarding fixing slow header (or hero) images: https://www.corewebvitals.io/pagespeed/ ... web-vitals

• Background images are loaded at a lower priority
• Background images are not responsive (not unless you really want to complicate things)
• Background images might cause Core Web Vitals issues with most lazy loading libraries.

The way I do it is by adding a normal image in an absolute position and setting the object-fit property of that image to cover. Once I have changed the background image to a normal image I can start using responsive images

Let's see if I can apply the given advice to the Spectrum's header image(s).

Edit 4:
I reversed the recent edits in the test forum to the point where the middle part of the board was narrower and the header image was smaller in file size. The slow loading of the header image was there but a lot less noticeable. I haven't tested the things, which I have mentioned in Edit 3, yet, which I will do now.

Edit 5:
The solution was simple. To get rid of the black background that can appear before the header image is loaded, you need to remove the black background color

Before: background: #000000 url("./images/bannerSkyrim.jpg") no-repeat left top;
After: background: url("./images/bannerSkyrim.jpg") no-repeat left top;


Edit 6:
Preloading header images only is fine. Previously, I also preloaded the nav bar due to the black background issue (the nav bar below the header image). After I removed the black color from the background property of the nav bar, the nav bar was fixed as well.

Maintenance work on September 7th/8th:
My web service provider is performing maintenance work between September 7th 10 p.m. and September 8th 5 a.m. (UTC). Therefore, the accessibility of the Spectrum may be affected during this time.

Edit:
I corrected the date (the maintenance begins on September 8th in my time zone which is UTC +2).



I could fix the issues with the header images (see edit 5 and 6 of the previous post), the header images for the Fallout 4 and Skyrim discussion areas are implemented (again) and here's a preview of the new main header image:

I spent the whole day making the header images responsive and created countless versions of the corresponding style sheets while doing this. The versions I uploaded are the ones with the least issues. I tested with the Mobile simulator extension for Chrome. The responsive counterparts of the header images look fine on all available simulated mobile devices (I use the free version of the extension).

I think I'm through with this topic and can move on to the next thing - opening up the Starfield discussion area. But now I need some sleep...

I have more energy left after work for some weeks. There was a time when I needed to rest in my bed (not sleeping) for an hour at least to recharge my "battery" a bit. Then I started to take vitamin D supplements for test purposes. I know it's better to consult the general practitioner first but I didn't want to wait that long until I get an appointment. Something needed to change now. So I gave the supplements a try. I think the supplements aren't the only reason why I'm feeling better. I also tried to get more sleep than usual (didn't always work) and drank a cup of green tea instead of caffeinated cacao in the morning. It seems that the green tea makes me more wake (dose: 2 teabags in 1 cup, steeping time: 5 minutes).

Edit:

Writing about my recent experience with vitamin D lead to my thread about deficiencies of vitamin D and other vitamins, minerals and hormones that can cause symptoms of fatigue and lack of energy and what you can do about it: viewtopic.php?t=201