Are you there yet?

[Mr Lucky]

I won't post this in the Styles forum as it isn't specifically about any one customisation.

How many of you are often working on customising the look of your forum? And do you get to the point where you can stop and relax. For the last year I seem to have been almost constantly fiddling. But now got to stage where I think i"m happy, with both the structure, look and navigation.

My only decision (now that I'm happy with forum list) is whether to stick with the landing page as root, or make the forum list the landing page.

Ironically just in time for v3 and start all over

 

[Davyc]

There's always going to be room for improvement. Forums are living entities and will be forever in a state of flux - for a time you will be happy with how it is, but then an idea will be sparked either from within or from an external source, and you will be back making changes.

I've forever tinkering, trying to make the experience more positive for my visitors, either in visual styling or making template changes. It's never ending. We change and adapt as we get older, and our forums will change and adapt to suit, and the more input we get from other sources, the more we will be inclined to tinker.

Front pages (or landing pages) need to change often - if nothing changes, people will stop looking. It's all about window dressing - that's why shops always change their window displays, to keep things fresh.

There will always be time to pause - but that's all it will be, lol. Enjoy the experience

 

[Suzanne O]

My crew are going through this and discussing what we all want.
I think i'm getting the "we're not fussed" response.
But i know we love the reactions buttons.
Think we will probably stay the same and maybe add a few things.

 

[CedricV]

Styling is personal. What looks good to one person might be an eyesore to another. The key is finding a balance that works for both you and your members. Most subtle tweaks will go unnoticed by users - so don’t get too caught up thinking every change will have a big impact.


That said, a clean, eye-friendly theme with both dark and light modes and solid mobile optimization - that’s what really matters.

 

[Suzanne O]

Styling is personal. What looks good to one person might be an eyesore to another. The key is finding a balance that works for both you and your members. Most subtle tweaks will go unnoticed by users - so don’t get too caught up thinking every change will have a big impact.


That said, a clean, eye-friendly theme with both dark and light modes and solid mobile optimization - that’s what really matters.

This is why i ask my crew what colours do they want to see on the style sheets we use.
Luckily we're all AFL fans and don't mind the colours that i use.

 

[woody]

This is why i ask my crew what colours do they want to see on the style sheets we use.
Luckily we're all AFL fans and don't mind the colours that i use.

AFL means something completely different to me (One of my favorite musicians)

On topic, I've done my best to maintain consistency over the years. Members like new features, but also like knowing where things are and not having to hunt for something they knew by heart in a previous style. That WAS a challenge when the VB > XF swap happened so many years back.... fortunately, @Russ made that process relatively seamless (and still does....)

 

[Alvin63]

I'm mostly happy but I know it could be more unique or distinctive. The one thing I've never been happy about was the logo. Gave up in the end and just stuck with it. I know it's not quite right but members all seem to think it's fine!

 

[Suzanne O]

AFL means something completely different to me (One of my favorite musicians)

On topic, I've done my best to maintain consistency over the years. Members like new features, but also like knowing where things are and not having to hunt for something they knew by heart in a previous style. That WAS a challenge when the VB > XF swap happened so many years back.... fortunately, @Russ made that process relatively seamless (and still does....)

I use Russ's styles. We're loving xenbase and flatawesome

 

[Davyc]

One of the important things to factor in when you're styling, particularly with colours, is not to get too embroiled in absolute finesse. What may look good on 'your' monitor may not look so good on someone else's monitor. With so many variables and permutations of brightness, contrast and colour saturation, not to mention various resolutions, it's difficult to envisage the final outcome for everyone. For example, you may have taken time out to find the perfect shade of dark grey that looks brilliant on your side, but may look black on other monitors. So, don't get too wrapped up in attempting perfection of colours. Try to go for a middle ground.

In regard to light and dark themes, how well your content looks should determine which is best, so focus on what brings out the best for your content and don't get too wrapped up in designing a theme version that doesn't sit well with your content. Theme designers will do both because they don't know your content and will cater for both camps. Personally, I use the default theme and go for dark only because it suits my content, which stands out more prominently in a darker theme.

Experimentation is good, but ultimately your focus should be on what brings out the best in your content and not what is best for you. All things in our online world of media is subjective - beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Suzanne O]

One of the important things to factor in when you're styling, particularly with colours, is not to get too embroiled in absolute finesse. What may look good on 'your' monitor may not look so good on someone else's monitor. With so many variables and permutations of brightness, contrast and colour saturation, not to mention various resolutions, it's difficult to envisage the final outcome for everyone. For example, you may have taken time out to find the perfect shade of dark grey that looks brilliant on your side, but may look black on other monitors. So, don't get too wrapped up in attempting perfection of colours. Try to go for a middle ground.

In regard to light and dark themes, how well your content looks should determine which is best, so focus on what brings out the best for your content and don't get too wrapped up in designing a theme version that doesn't sit well with your content. Theme designers will do both because they don't know your content and will cater for both camps. Personally, I use the default theme and go for dark only because it suits my content, which stands out more prominently in a darker theme.

Experimentation is good, but ultimately your focus should be on what brings out the best in your content and not what is best for you. All things in our online world of media is subjective - beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

What we do is discuss everything from colours, default style or some third party style, theme of forum, content, reactions, even the rules get discussed.
We decided that because we're aussie rules fans that we'd have at least one style in north melbourne colours (royal blue and white).
The other style would be default until we change it.