Beta Testing of 2010 Styling

Written by Monachos.net Webmaster | 12 August 2009

Welcome to the beta testing area for the Monachos.net 2010 styling. This allows beta testers to view the site's new styling and layout, and report and bugs, oddities, and quirks that may appear on various displays and browsers.

In the week of 31st August - 5th September 2009 we will be carrying out a broader beta test of the new styling across the whole web site, including the Discussion Community forum.

Before you begin (important!):

Please note that you should clear your browser cache before exploring the Monachos.net web site in its beta styling, as the new style may conflict with elements already cached in your browser, causing it to render the new pages incorrectly.

Please read this helpful document giving instructions on how to clear your cache in most popular web browsers.

Things to test in the beta style:

You are invited (encouraged) to explore the whole site in the new style: the purpose of beta testing is to have as many people as possible visit the various areas of the site on different browsers, connections, speeds, monitors, etc., to see if there are bugs or other problems that appear on some systems but not others. For this reason, we would be grateful if our beta testers would explore the site thoroughly.

In particular:

• Do the pages load at an adequate speed? If not, please let us know which pages you find too slow - and also what type of connection of have to the internet (broadband, dialup, modem/mobile wireless, etc.).
• Are there any problems with the layout as you see it on your screen? For example: text that runs off the side of the page; boxes that are not aligned; headings that are spaced improperly. If you notice any such things, please ensure that you let us know what browser you are using, and the size/resolution of your monitor (if known).
• What do you think about the new main menu bar that runs across the top of the page, just below the header? In particular, does it pose any display problems on your browser?
• You'll notice that, at this stage in beta testing, the menu images under the Patristics menu are slightly faded / opaque, whereas in the other menus the images are at full resolution / brightness. Which styling do you prefer?
• Try out the new multi-style system under the 'Special' menu, which allows you to select from various layout/colour schemes in the new design: the 'default' scheme which is to be the standard for the web site, but also a few variations, as well as a low-graphics / fast loading version. Do these all work for you?
• With respect to the Discussion Community forum in particular: are there any areas that aren't functioning as you expected them to? Are any areas suffering from poor rendering? Integrating the forum into the new styling has been quite technically demanding, so we would be especially grateful for notes on any outstanding issues in this area.
• Generally speaking have you any suggestions for ways the new styling can be improved?

Known bugs and issues:

At present, the following are known bugs and issues that are outstanding in the new styling. You needn't report these as bugs, given that they are already known:

• Fixed (as of 16 Sept 09) The Word from the Fathers random quotations page is currently not displaying quotations; this is a known and temporary situation, whilst we upgrade the quotations system to work on the new design.
• There is currently a problem with the display of Cyrillic font in the Discussion Community under the new styling: Cyrillic characters are displaying simply as a string of question marks (e.g. ???? ?? ?????). Update 2-Sep-09: This is a known issue and has been partially resolved: messages can be posted in Cyrillic, but at present they revert to question marks when one re-visits the page. We're continuing to attempt to resolve this bug.
• Fixed (as of 1-Sept-09) There are some reports of pages in the Discussion Community displaying with inordinately large amounts of whitespace, causing them to be much longer than need be and require more scrolling. Please read here for details about this issue.
• Fixed (as of 16 Sept 09) Member profiles in the Discussion Community are not displaying correctly: some of the boxes overlap or are hidden. Update 2-Sep-09: We have partially resolved this bug; work to stylise further the member profiles is currently underweigh.
• Fixed (as of 3 Sept 09) The 'Books Review' area within the Discussion Community is currently not displaying correctly (as of 2-Sep-09).