Welcome to the new Knight Realms website!

The new website is live!

The new site is a major overhaul of the code used to run the site as well as some of the graphics (as  you might have noticed...   ).  Changes include:

• New graphics done by James C. Kimball himself!
• The site is now running on Joomla 1.5 (instead of 1.0), which offers increased security & stability, as well as ease of use for the Staff, and additional add-ons (like the new Rulebook listing).
• The layout of the site is done entirely in CSS, instead of HTML tables.  This should speed up the site dramatically, as it reduces the amount of code needed to run it.
• A new, more functional (and stable) Forums & Gallery link, called JFusion.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO), to make the site friendlier to Google and other sites.
• The inclusion of Sponsored Links, for companies that offer KR members discounts.

Sadly, one of the things that had to go were the old forums.knightrealms.com and gallery.knightrealms.com links... they could not work with the new SEO system in place, but they have been replaced with a newer, easier set of links ( www.knightrealms.com/forums.html and www.knightrealms.com/gallery.html )

Of course, I'm only human - if you see any dead links or other issues, please post them here, and I'll update the site.

Thank you, and enjoy!

This looks AMAZING Geoff!!

I agree Geoff this site now looks amazing.  Also I had a very minor question.  I can't see how many pms I have any longer when I first sign in.  When we get new pms will the site indicate that, or will I have to go into my messages to check?  Not a big deal, again merely curious.  Thanks

James didn't like it under the icon on the left... he asked me to limit it to the Forums only, so as not to clutter the sidebars. 

WOW!  Kudos on making the site look fantastic! 

GJ Jeff.  Nice face lift.

With this update, has the forum lost the functionality to list only those posts an individual has not read yet?  That was a helpful tool to quickly scan new topics.

Like the PMs post, James asked me to remove it - if he can be convinced otherwise, I'll see about adding it back in.

It IS there, actually, just hard to find... when you go into your personal messages (which you have to do through the forum link now), the bar along the top will show your picture and two links next to it: "show unread posts since last visit", and "show new replies to your posts". That first link will bring you to unread post page.

Vince says its also there on the forum page, very small at the bottom, but I can't find it.

Edit: You don't actually have to choose "personal messages" first. The bar appears at the top of the forum page once you're logged in and there.

Don't make me post a screenshot

It IS there, actually, just hard to find... when you go into your personal messages (which you have to do through the forum link now), the bar along the top will show your picture and two links next to it: "show unread posts since last visit", and "show new replies to your posts". That first link will bring you to unread post page.

Vince says its also there on the forum page, very small at the bottom, but I can't find it.

Edit: You don't actually have to choose "personal messages" first. The bar appears at the top of the forum page once you're logged in and there.

Good catch, thanks!  Bookmarked 

I'm working on a way to make it appear, but not on the sidebar, so James can be happy along with everyone else.  The "Unread Posts" link is back, I'll see about adding a PMs link, but that may take some time.

Looks great!

I just wanted to say thank you for the "Our Family in the Service" link. My brother is about to go off to serve our country, and many of my cousins are in the service also. I know I'm not the only one, but I certainly appreciate the fact that our community can display this proudly. Thank you again 

I hope your brother and cousins are safe Lina.

Great work Geoff, nice facelift!

It looks really cool.  Great job Geoff / JamesCKimball.com.

Only question I have is, is there any way for me to shrink the font / layout of the message boards?  Even when I expand the window to full screen the message boards don't fit into the center area and I have to scroll side to side to see everything.

Is there some kind of setting I can change to fix this?  I looked in the profile preferences section and didn't see anything. 

Thanks.

--Skimmel

Actually, yes!  The catch is, it's in your browser...

Most browsers let you shrink the text, by going to the View menu - it'll let you adjust it there for the whole site.  Everything SHOULD scale properly to fit.

Or, you just need a new monitor. 

Really nice look.

<<The layout of the site is done entirely in CSS,>>  which, where I come from stands for Charles Stuart Spiegel, but being almost completely clueless in even elementary geek, I have no idea what is stands for.  Would you enlighten me, so I can at least make pretend I have a clue?

So pretty, you can almost feel the grain and the leather

CSS, in this case, stands for "Cascading Style Sheets", which means one page of text controls how the entire site looks.  If I change something on that one site, it changes on every page on the website - it controls things like font sizes, colors, background images, etc.

You will also notice the Spell Checker is back.  Yes, I thought of it specifically for you, Charlie.

Under "Monthly Awards" several of the older links report back a JFusion Error.

Can you specify which ones?  I went back through about two dozen random months, and could not find any errors.

Actually, yes!  The catch is, it's in your browser...

Most browsers let you shrink the text, by going to the View menu - it'll let you adjust it there for the whole site.  Everything SHOULD scale properly to fit.

Or, you just need a new monitor. 

Yes, but then the default text shrinks for every other site you visit as well. Constantly changing the font size in your browser is not a particularly good solution.

FWIW I'm having the same type of problem - the forums are really squished - and I'm on a widescreen monitor. I tried to check the forums last night from a lab computer with a standard ratio monitor, and it was not pretty. Side-to-side scrolling is awful. The site is beautiful, but no matter what you do to the font, the sidebars will NOT scale with font.

Also, changing the default font in the browser preferences only changes the font that has *not* been specified with a size. If your CSS says all H2's are going to be point 18, no matter what we do on our end, that header's going to be 18 pt.

I'm sorry for being so critical It really does look very pretty, and I know a lot of work went into it, and probably us people on smaller screen should just suck it up.

I've noticed on my smartphone, if I goto the forums, everything is skewed slightly and squished.  On my work PC and home laptop, everything looks ok.

Cassie - Hm, I will re-check the CSS for the forums - I think I know what is happening.  I had to make some last-minute changes before we went live, and I have a good idea as to what happened.

Paul - Not too much I can do about smartphones, until they get a better resolution.

Can you specify which ones?  I went back through about two dozen random months, and could not find any errors.

They all seem to be working properly now.  Looks like the bug fixed itself 

Looks really nice. The gallery needs a sidebar 'cause it doesn't all fit in the center. But otherwise kudos

I am using Mozilla Firefox and have to scroll side to side to see text or pictures.  The other problem I am having is I cannot log out even if my computer is shut down.  Other than that looks awesome great job.

Matt B.

OK, here's the deal... If this is impacting more than a few people, I need details to be able to make a case to James.

If you're having issues with the formatting of the site, please post what resolution your screen is set to - that will help me test it, and allow me to know what needs to be done.

Thank you!

Im using Mozilla as well and its fine for me. Even if I shrink the window down to half my moniter size its fine. If I start to go smaller though, then I need to scroll.

My only thought is that some people must have their resolution set to the default windows resolution, which is normally giant clunky letters. My resolution is set to: 1600 x 1200 pixels. I realize not everyone has good graphic cards, but usually you can still raise your resolution higher than the setting your computer installs at.

As Geoff said, Anyone who is having the problem of not being able to fit everything on your screen, please post
1) Your Monitor Size
2) Your Current Resolution (While your looking at your resolution, maybe kick it up a notch... )

We aren't re-designing the graphical lay-out of the site again, so I hope we figure this out some other way

15" laptop screen, at 1440x900. This is the largest resolution I can set it.