Forum Look and Feel

ABrownrigg · Post by **ABrownrigg** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:47 am

Well, my artistic sensabilities are getting to me. I'm wanting to alter the look of the forum.

What do you think? color scheme, custom setup, what works, what doesn't.. what needs a facelift, if anything.

Figarou · Post by **Figarou** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:50 am

Well, an upgrade to the newest version is a start.

and how about them wolf smiles I made? (edited)

Vuldari · Post by **Vuldari** » Wed May 25, 2005 11:46 am

For stuff like that, I can't just describe what I think I would like to see...because sometimes what SOUNDS good, looks awful, and something that sounds just way too weird, looks great when you actually see and use it.

I'd really like to see some examples of what options there are (Maybe post links to other forums of Any subject that look good), so we can compare and make suggestions like "I like the forum on the Healthcare Website...but if we could have a black bacground with a Full Moon in place of the faded company logo...", etc. etc.

...all I know is, I still don't care for the harsh, sharp edges, clashing yellow and baby-blue colors and "neon" brightness of the current fourm appearance.

Figarou · Post by **Figarou** » Wed May 25, 2005 12:07 pm

Here is a few styles you can look at.

http://www.jakob-persson.com/templates.php

http://www.jakob-persson.com/styles_demo.php

Vuldari · Post by **Vuldari** » Wed May 25, 2005 12:09 pm

Figarou wrote:How about the look of this forum?

http://www.charreddirt.com/forum/index.php

That looks pretty slick, though I don't care for the bright blue background. It's not Awful...just a little too bright in my opinion.

That forum has a very nice, "refined" look to it. ...but it comes at a price. It is a bit image-heavy. Every border, button, background, icon, etc. is a complex image/texture which bogs down browsing speed for people with slower connections. I have broadband, and even I was a little frustrated with having to wait an additional 3-15 seconds after each page loaded for the border images to load...thus forcing me to look at a screen full of red x's each time I browsed to a new page.

Again...it looked very nice...but I think the balance between "form" and "function" should definately be taken into consideration for our own forum.

Vuldari · Post by **Vuldari** » Wed May 25, 2005 12:12 pm

Figarou wrote:Here is a few styles you can look at.

http://www.jakob-persson.com/templates.php

http://www.jakob-persson.com/styles_demo.php

There ya' go!...

Thank's Figarou!

Figarou · Post by **Figarou** » Wed May 25, 2005 12:14 pm

Vuldari wrote:
Figarou wrote:How about the look of this forum?

http://www.charreddirt.com/forum/index.php
That looks pretty slick, though I don't care for the bright blue background. It's not Awful...just a little too bright in my opinion.

That forum has a very nice, "refined" look to it. ...but it comes at a price. It is a bit image-heavy. Every border, button, background, icon, etc. is a complex image/texture which bogs down browsing speed for people with slower connections. I have broadband, and even I was a little frustrated with having to wait an additional 3-15 seconds after each page loaded for the border images to load...thus forcing me to look at a screen full of red x's each time I browsed to a new page.

Again...it looked very nice...but I think the balance between "form" and "function" should definately be taken into consideration for our own forum.

Well, the reason why it took an additional 3-15 seconds is because the forum is hosted in the far east. Thats what I was told by the person who runs that forum.

I changed my post to the templates page because I feared the load time of that forum may make someone think something is wrong with that style.

Vilkacis · Post by **Vilkacis** » Wed May 25, 2005 12:42 pm

Personally, I've always favored the colors at Shifters.org. Unfortunately, the site has changed significantly from when I saw it last (it's not nearly as impressive; they had a good thing going on before), but you can still get the general idea as far as the colors go.

They seem to be having trouble with their server right now, so I'll post a screenshot instead:

-- Vilkacis

Vuldari · Post by **Vuldari** » Wed May 25, 2005 1:23 pm

This image reminds me of the OLD forum look we had before the switch to the "neon" style that we currently have.

I liked the subtle, (though somewhat bland), greys of the old board. I thought it was pleasant and functional.

...plus, I really liked the old "full moon" icons that indicated which topics had new posts.

The new mutli-color system of little symbols just confuses me. "...wait...does red mean active or not active? If yellow means new posts, and black means NO new posts, and red means no posts, but there used to be alot of them, then what does ORANGE mean again?..." It's just overly complicated.

outwarddoodles · Post by **outwarddoodles** » Wed May 25, 2005 4:31 pm

I like it just how it is. I sappose I'm a loser like that but I just like it. If it changes here are my demands-
- Clean, not cluttered.
- Not bright, not obnousiuos.

Kzinistzerg · Post by **Kzinistzerg** » Wed May 25, 2005 7:37 pm

the way it is is fine. if uyoudo change it, add lots of werewolf related stuff loke moon icons and stuff. you could also add in more ranks for post numbers (a s the most # now is 40 and most are over it. soem of us are up in the 400s and above, and fig's ip in the thousands...)

Aki · Post by **Aki** » Wed May 25, 2005 8:13 pm

I like this setup, but i doubt i would mind a change if it happened.

I tend to get used to forum template fast.

Goldenwolf · Post by **Goldenwolf** » Wed May 25, 2005 9:00 pm

Oooo, I really liked that Solaris scheme in the links Fig posted. Just change that to the moon and you got yourselves a wiener in my book ;)

Vuldari · Post by **Vuldari** » Wed May 25, 2005 11:40 pm

Shadowblaze wrote:the way it is is fine. if uyoudo change it, add lots of werewolf related stuff loke moon icons and stuff. you could also add in more ranks for post numbers (a s the most # now is 40 and most are over it. soem of us are up in the 400s and above, and fig's ip in the thousands...)

...yeah...that has been bothering me ever since I first got up to "Legendary" on my rank at about 40-50 posts and then nothing happened from there.

The various ranks should be far more spread out, like 25 posts...then 50...100...200...500...750...1000...

OR...it might be fun if we could 'opt' to make up our own rank/titles once we reach a certain level. ("Alpha Duckie thrower"..."Officaial Pack Howler..."Insane master of pudding", etc.)

I agree that I will be okay with just about anything, so long as it feels appropriate to the website and is not overly bright or obnoxious.

Vilkacis · Post by **Vilkacis** » Wed May 25, 2005 11:47 pm

I rather like it the way it is, but I probably wouldn't care too much if it changed.

Be aware, however, that it's probably inevitable that not everyone will be happy, no matter what you change it to.

And I agree with Vuldari on both accounts: ranks and titles.

-- Vilkacis

Silverclaw · Post by **Silverclaw** » Thu May 26, 2005 2:01 pm

I like the way the website looks now. I wont cry or anything if you change it though

I really like the idea of coming up with your own title after a certin number of posts. The wolf smilie edits could go up as well. Maybe some werewolf concept art...*nudge nudge*

Aki · Post by **Aki** » Thu May 26, 2005 3:26 pm

Goldenwolf wrote:Oooo, I really liked that Solaris scheme in the links Fig posted. Just change that to the moon and you got yourselves a wiener in my book ;)

Interesting idea, the sun to a moon....

so..it would be "Lunaris" rthen?

Baphnedia · Post by **Baphnedia** » Thu May 26, 2005 7:12 pm

I don't mind the look of the site as it stands now... just as long as it doesn't get to gaudy. The rank structure is kinda nice, but it could be spread out (as was said before). However, a slightly different range might work... and keep those who aren't admins or mods posting madly to get to Legendary...

Go on powers of five. (I found that 10 would be a little too predicatable, and also a little too much work in the long run)
<5
5
25
125
3125
etc etc.

It will keep most of the frequent posters on the forum something to look forward to. Plus, depending on how many moons you have or how you fill them, you can extend this scale pretty much forever.

Vilkacis · Post by **Vilkacis** » Thu May 26, 2005 7:56 pm

A base of 5 seems a bit extreme near the end of the scale. I don't think anyone wants to wait until their 3125th post to get their fourth moon--and 15625 for legendary! Perhaps a base of 3 or 4 instead?

under 3 (no picture)
4 - 9 (one moon)
10 - 27 (two moons)
28 - 81 (three moons)
82 - 243 (four moons)
245 and on (five moons + custom title)

under 4 (no picture)
5 - 16 (one moon)
17 - 64 (two moons)
65 - 256 (three moons)
257 - 1024 (four moons + custom title)
1025 and on (five moons + custom title)

Either one of those would be fine with me. I think they're a bit more balanced as far as an exponential scale is concerned.

Baphnedia · Post by **Baphnedia** » Thu May 26, 2005 8:49 pm

good point... on my forum I couldn't start with less than one star (under the current config) so if you get 3125 posts, you reach your fifth star. However here, you have a rank with no moons, so yes, a lower base is appropriate.

Vuldari · Post by **Vuldari** » Thu May 26, 2005 11:41 pm

I don't really understand the FIVE moons. It would make more sense to me if, instead of adding more moons, there would just be ONE moon symbol, which slowly changes phases as you rise in rank.

...or forego the moon system entirely, if anyone thinks of something else.

...naaa...on second thought, keep the moon.

Ranks above 1500 posts just seems a bit excessive to me. Only the forum regulars would ever come NEAR to that count.

...I'm the second buisiest poster on the forum right now, after Half a Year's time, and I'm not even HALF-WAY to reaching 1500 yet. (Though Figarou passed that mark a while ago...Isn't he up to the 2,000+ mark allready?)

I agree with Goldenwolf that the Solaris teplate looks pretty nice. Put a Full Moon in the background instead of a sun (off to the side instead of center top, perhaps...with the PACK logo opposite), and we could be in buisness.

Otherwise...
Neutral colors usually work best.
Black-White-Grey-Tan-Silver-Gold-Beige

Plus Natural and Earth tones might work well too.
Tan-Grey-Brown-Orange-Beige-Green-Blue-Black

...or Night tones...
Blue-Purple-Black-Grey-Silver-White

...or none of the above...

outwarddoodles · Post by **outwarddoodles** » Fri May 27, 2005 2:55 pm

I think the power of three and four would be nice. And when we get a custom title do we get to choose it? (Summoner of demon llamas, spitting llama of anti-derailment.)

While on these topics I think what would be nice to add to the botom would be a shout board. So if we have something small to say, a duckie to throw, or a small anoucement (such as 'dog soilders' are going to be on at 5 on the Sci-fi channel today, thats an hour!) we can post it right there. If thats posible it would be really fun to post in.

Darth Canis · Post by **Darth Canis** » Sat May 28, 2005 1:47 am

i vote lunaris

The rest *shrugs* i don't care