Review my Dark theme please

MapleOne

Well-known member
I discovered the Shades of Grey theme and I think the author did a marvelous job.

I did find a number of things to tweak and have spent a couple of weeks modifying it to turn it into something that works for me.
At the beginning I put in the dark theme at a members request and I ran it a week so I could see all the bugs and tweaks but after I switched back to light I found myself preferring the dark look. It must be because I have dark active all over my Pixel phone so I was already used to such a look.

That said maybe a few of you can have a look around and tell me if there is anything I can do to improve my dark skin.

I made it the default so you don't have to click around, any feedback would be appreciated.

 
I looked around for a while and really like it. I don't really have suggestions for it. Maybe lighten the New Posts button slightly?

I do have some other questions and comments after looking around for a while.

  • The site loads ridiculously fast. One of the fastest I've seen. If you're not using Font Awesome Manager, you should. Then you'd have nearly perfect optimization and speed.
  • I really, really love this: "No ads, no fees, no bull, just domains and good friends." This is the same mindset I run my sites with and it's hard to come by nowadays. If your site gets big, don't ever forget that this was one of your core principals!
  • What does the 2002-2022 in your user title mean? Surely the site isn't that old? I'm assuming it's how long you've been in the business?
  • What is your light/dark button in the header from? Is that an add-on or did you make that?
  • What did you use to make your favicon and social icons? Did you use a site that generates them all at once?
  • Are you bringing in traffic by inviting members from the once-huge-but-now-defunct domain forums? I've been looking for a domain forum and I didn't like what I saw on the big ones. Yours is looking promising though. You're a staff member on NamePros, right?
  • The Newest Members widget is kind of distracting, though not a big deal. If anything, you could take out the color from the dynamic avatars.
  • Is your site's meta title intentionally just NamePost.com? Do you think that's fine for SEO?
  • Do you intend to ever do a front page with industry news and such? Or do you think it will always be just a forum? I always debate this with myself for my Tacoma forum.
  • Your footer copyright still says 2021.
  • I'm going to join - nice site!
 
The site loads ridiculously fast. One of the fastest I've seen. If you're not using Font Awesome Manager, you should. Then you'd have nearly perfect optimization and speed.
I keep everything light so the site loads fast. Is the Font Awesome Manager part of Xenforo? What setting?

I really, really love this: "No ads, no fees, no bull, just domains and good friends." This is the same mindset I run my sites with and it's hard to come by nowadays. If your site gets big, don't ever forget that this was one of your core principals!
That will not change, it was the reason the site was launched

What does the 2002-2022 in your user title mean? Surely the site isn't that old? I'm assuming it's how long you've been in the business?
That is part of my business name, shows people how long I have been domaining.

What is your light/dark button in the header from? Is that an add-on or did you make that?
That is an addon but I had to tweak it to make it my own.

What did you use to make your favicon and social icons? Did you use a site that generates them all at once?
I made it by hand

Are you bringing in traffic by inviting members from the once-huge-but-now-defunct domain forums? I've been looking for a domain forum and I didn't like what I saw on the big ones. Yours is looking promising though. You're a staff member on NamePros, right?
I was a member there but closed my account to start this forum. I am getting traffic mainly by posting on Twitter, it is a slow process.

The Newest Members widget is kind of distracting, though not a big deal. If anything, you could take out the color from the dynamic avatars.
We are still in Beta so the look and feel will change as I add content.

Is your site's meta title intentionally just NamePost.com? Do you think that's fine for SEO?
Title is NamePost.com - Meta Description is:
NamePost.com | Post and Discuss Domain Names | No ads, No fees, No bull, Just Domains & Good Friends.

Do you intend to ever do a front page with industry news and such? Or do you think it will always be just a forum? I always debate this with myself for my Tacoma forum.
Not something I had planned, traditionally I dislike front pages and prefer to be right in the site. An entry page is so 10 years ago and enough sites show industry news. There will be a forum on that and I don't have more planned.

Your footer copyright still says 2021.
Eventually it will look like this 2021-2023 I just did not want to do that yet because we only launched late last year.

I'm going to join - nice site!
I am very happy you like it, I have done a lot of work on it.

You can check out my other forum here:


Thinking of converting that one to Xenforo as well
 
I keep everything light so the site loads fast. Is the Font Awesome Manager part of Xenforo? What setting?
It's an add-on: Font Awesome Manager. It can be a little tricky to set up but it will easily take your mobile Google PageSpeed score from the ~80 that it has, to 95+. If you care about that type of thing.

Not something I had planned, traditionally I dislike front pages and prefer to be right in the site. An entry page is so 10 years ago and enough sites show industry news. There will be a forum on that and I don't have more planned.
I agree.

Thinking of converting that one to Xenforo as well
That forum looks nice. What software is that? The domain is cool too.
 
That forum looks nice. What software is that? The domain is cool too.
The domain is insanely good and spot on for Canada.

The software is a heavily modified PunBB installation which stands for Puny Bulletin Board.
I built it for maximum speed on shared hosting and it probably has 100+ custom modification installed. ( I wrote some of them myself)
 
If it were me, I would switch it to XF just for the consistency of development. That way they can both be running the same "version" of your styles, add-ons, etc.

The build PunBB does look clean though.
 

I didn't realize you were building this to flip it. Good luck with it. 😬

I sell domains and developed sites, the Xenforo platform is one of the tools I use.
I already sold one domain after launching a Xenforo community on it and I am hopping this will be my second one.

I hang on to my license and new owners have to purchase their own license.

Some domains lend themselves well to this task while others need different type of development.
 
I sell domains and developed sites, the Xenforo platform is one of the tools I use.
I already sold one domain after launching a Xenforo community on it and I am hopping this will be my second one.

I hang on to my license and new owners have to purchase their own license.

Some domains lend themselves well to this task while others need different type of development.
I suppose it's a good money making strategy. I know a lot of people who like to buy a well established community. I like the domain name but not overly keen on the theme, seems a little too basic for me.
 
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