Board appearance differences as administrator and guest

[Radrook]

Forum URL: writerdreams.freeforums.net


As administrator to me it has a blue on white background.
When accessed as a guest it has a black background with white letters. 
How can I fix this?

BTW
The blue on white is the background I specifically selected. I did try out the white on black theme temporarily but changed back. Is this what is causing it?

Thanks for your help.

[Retread]

Navigate:

Admin Home> Themes> Theme Manager

When you hover over each theme, you'll also see the words: Make Default If you click on the words when hovering over the theme you want, that will make the theme the default. Guests only see the default theme.

Members will be able to select any theme you have enabled by using the Settings tab in their profile.

[Radrook]

Apr 16, 2019 8:39:31 GMT -8 Retread said:

Navigate:

Admin Home> Themes> Theme Manager

When you hover over each theme, you'll also see the words: Make Default If you click on the words when hovering over the theme you want, that will make the theme the default. Guests only see the default theme.

Members will be able to select any theme you have enabled by using the Settings tab in their profile.

Thank you. Will do as you describe. 

[Kami]

To further add: making a theme “default” will only work for guests. Any existing members, who had the former default theme already selected, will have to manually select the new theme in their personal settings as well.

So if I have Theme A as default, then set Theme B as default, all members up til that point will still be using Theme A, but guests and any *new* members that join after the switch will see Theme B. If members on Theme A want to see Theme B, they will need to edit their profile and select Theme B in settings.

If you want to force everyone into the new theme, after you make the theme default DISABLE any other theme briefly, then re-enable it. This will force the switch without members having to act, but they can still switch back (unless, of course, you decide to keep the other themes disabled)

[Brian]

Apr 16, 2019 16:40:58 GMT -8 Kami said:

If you want to force everyone into the new theme, after you make the theme default DISABLE any other theme briefly, then re-enable it. This will force the switch without members having to act, but they can still switch back (unless, of course, you decide to keep the other themes disabled)

This won't actually do anything unless the user happens to saves their profile settings while the theme is disabled since a different theme will be selected in the dropdown at that time which will overwrite whatever was saved previously.

Disabling a theme doesn't update anyone's profile settings automatically. The forum just sees that your account is trying to use an inaccessible theme ID when a page is requested and loads the theme selected as the default instead.

[Radrook]

Apr 16, 2019 16:40:58 GMT -8 Kami said:

To further add: making a theme “default” will only work for guests. Any existing members, who had the former default theme already selected, will have to manually select the new theme in their personal settings as well.

So if I have Theme A as default, then set Theme B as default, all members up til that point will still be using Theme A, but guests and any *new* members that join after the switch will see Theme B. If members on Theme A want to see Theme B, they will need to edit their profile and select Theme B in settings.

If you want to force everyone into the new theme, after you make the theme default DISABLE any other theme briefly, then re-enable it. This will force the switch without members having to act, but they can still switch back (unless, of course, you decide to keep the other themes disabled)

Good to know. The more knowledgeable the better. Thanks for the advice!

BTW

Of course members, if there ever will be any others, are free to configure their view as they wish. That is OK.  But I had one responder said that my forum lacked variety of color and looked monotonous. So  checked how the guest was seeing it and it turned out to be a black background with white text.  So what I am trying to prevent is giving a bad impression to guests since it might discourage them from joining by assuming that they have no control over how they will see the board. But no I would not try to force everyone to permanently accept my preferences. 

[Radrook]

Apr 16, 2019 17:11:40 GMT -8 Brian said:

Apr 16, 2019 16:40:58 GMT -8 Kami said:

If you want to force everyone into the new theme, after you make the theme default DISABLE any other theme briefly, then re-enable it. This will force the switch without members having to act, but they can still switch back (unless, of course, you decide to keep the other themes disabled)

This won't actually do anything unless the user happens to saves their profile settings while the theme is disabled since a different theme will be selected in the dropdown at that time which will overwrite whatever was saved previously.

Disabling a theme doesn't update anyone's profile settings automatically. The forum just sees that your account is trying to use an inaccessible theme ID when a page is requested and loads the theme selected as the default instead.

Thanks for the clarification. As long as the initial board seen by the guest is the one I chose it is OK. I just don't want to create a bad first impression. After they are members they can choose as they wish. 

[Kami]

Apr 16, 2019 17:11:40 GMT -8 Brian said:

Apr 16, 2019 16:40:58 GMT -8 Kami said:

If you want to force everyone into the new theme, after you make the theme default DISABLE any other theme briefly, then re-enable it. This will force the switch without members having to act, but they can still switch back (unless, of course, you decide to keep the other themes disabled)

This won't actually do anything unless the user happens to saves their profile settings while the theme is disabled since a different theme will be selected in the dropdown at that time which will overwrite whatever was saved previously.

Disabling a theme doesn't update anyone's profile settings automatically. The forum just sees that your account is trying to use an inaccessible theme ID when a page is requested and loads the theme selected as the default instead.

Huh, I guess I must have read that wrong back in the day, thanks for the clarification!

[Brian]

Apr 16, 2019 20:05:11 GMT -8 Kami said:

Apr 16, 2019 17:11:40 GMT -8 Brian said:

This won't actually do anything unless the user happens to saves their profile settings while the theme is disabled since a different theme will be selected in the dropdown at that time which will overwrite whatever was saved previously.

Disabling a theme doesn't update anyone's profile settings automatically. The forum just sees that your account is trying to use an inaccessible theme ID when a page is requested and loads the theme selected as the default instead.

Huh, I guess I must have read that wrong back in the day, thanks for the clarification!

I think it's usually a suggestion to forums that try to keep users on a single theme at all times, so I can totally understand that being the expected behavior.

One way to force the change is to create a new theme and choose the Copy an Existing Theme​ ​​​option to copy the one that users are on, then delete the original. It's the same result, but since the copy gets a new theme ID and the original's ID no longer exists the only remaining way for users to return to the theme they were on is to update their profile settings.

On a plugin-heavy forum this may come with the issue of having to edit the theme permissions of every plugin to include or exclude that theme, but either way the option is there.