Should xenForo have a new default skin?

Caliburn

Caliburn

Well-known member
This is a hypothetical only. Do you think in celebration that xenForo is once again in full swing the software should receive a new default skin? I remember vaguely that Invision did something similar. A contest. The skinning community designs and develops a new default skin for the software. Of course it would have to be approved by KAM and whatnot. Just an idea. Community thoughts? It'd be something huge for the community to rally behind!
 
Caliburn said:
This is a hypothetical only. Do you think in celebration that xenForo is once again in full swing the software should receive a new default skin? I remember vaguely that Invision did something similar. A contest. The skinning community designs and develops a new default skin for the software. Of course it would have to be approved by KAM and whatnot. Just an idea. Community thoughts?
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I think it would be interesting to have an additional skin where the community participated in a new revised style. I don't think it should be the default though, but i certainly think it would be great to have a winning style as an option for members to choose from.

To extend further, And i did suggest this in the early days is that it would be nice to have styles specifically for celebration times of the year Xmas, halloween, valentines etc. I know these are business forums but it's always nice to inject some character. There's only one forum software I know that goes out the way to put celebration styles up and that is zetaboards formerly known as invisionfree. The biggest benefit it adds an additional element of character and a warmly atmosphere.

If you have a community with talent, utilise it I say.
 
I can see that. I don't know about the whole holiday idea as it isn't "politically correct" in today's society and this is a business forum however I do think that a contest like this in a manner you describe would give a significant boost to the community. It'll work towards revitalizing and re-attracting the professional crowd and we all need that.
 
Caliburn said:
I can see that. I don't know about the whole holiday idea as it isn't "politically correct" in today's society and this is a business forum however I do think that a contest like this in a manner you describe would give a significant boost to the community. It'll work towards revitalizing and re-attracting the professional crowd and we all need that.
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Sometimes you need to throw your (generally speaking) business head out of the window. Google are a thriving business yet they celebrate people, their accomplishments and national holidays in the way of the doodle google. It's got the potential to be a wow factor for a software/business.
 
The IPB contest winner one was never the default theme even after Ehren won the contest, it was a secondary theme that shipped with the software IIRC.

I personally don't dig the idea of another official theme, hopefully when more important things have been attended to, Kier might freshen this design up a bit, but I am not seeing a need for a new one.. unlike IPB which had a super dated clunker of a skin at the time.

Totally agree with Shelley on the holiday fun though! :D Big fan of that!
 
Kim said:
The IPB contest winner one was never the default theme even after Ehren won the contest, it was a secondary theme that shipped with the software IIRC.

I personally don't dig the idea of another official theme, hopefully when more important things have been attended to, Kier might freshen this design up a bit, but I am not seeing a need for a new one.. unlike IPB which had a super dated clunker of a skin at the time.
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ROFLMAO - Super dated clunker :LOL: I'm adding that to my dictionary.

*adds to sign design*
 
I don't think there is a "need" for a new skin. However, I like the idea of a contest or some more options. It would be cool to see what the smart minds can create.
 
yeah bust out a new theme. Great idea. Bust out a new xenforo while your at it. Blogs, cms, bust out a gallery too.
 
What I would prefer to see is themes being made that didnt look anything like the default one. A theme that takes XF back to basics and is then redesigned from there, not sharing any similarity. Thats the one thing that annoys me about premium themes - a lot of them, most of them, are based heavily on the original theme, and mainly only consist of colour changes and a few images, gradients, etc added in.
 
I've always liked the default skin. I think that considering we HAVE to look at it a lot by coming here, it stands the test of time well.
But an alternate, or even several built over time, would be grand. I take Caliburn's point on pol correct, but Shelley's counterpoint re google is cool - great debate you two! constructive. RickM - intriguing to take an altedrnate in a raddical direction. I think whichever, we can trust KAM's taste to choose well as arbiter.

My own point is to add that alternate skins would reflect the flexibility of XF to adapt to so many different needs. Both sttructurally and as design XF is a fluid form and more skins on this site would demonstrate that feeling.
 
I think a new style should only come in a XenForo 2.0 release.

I bought the current version for how it is now and I would expect the style to stay roughly the same up until a new version release.

There's other forum software that abuse the release cycle and include things like new styles and editors in x.x releases.
 
AdamD said:
A community contest to design a new theme would be awesome, as long as "Team KAM" are ok with it.
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My initial thoughts were a "Flat design" what I envisioned the style to be. Something I want to try and design one day when I can move my lazy backside out of neutral.
 
AdamD said:
A community contest to design a new theme would be awesome, as long as "Team KAM" are ok with it.
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I like that idea.

Maybe throw a kickstarter fund up, and the winner (as chosen by the community) gets the cash as a prize, on the condition that it be free for life and have at least a years worth of updates from the dev, and at which point it'll be handed to KAM. :)
 
I think there's no need to replace this default style, however an additional style to show what else is possible, not a bad idea. Although it does require extra time, time that may be spend more productively creating new (essential) features.

So really low priority IMO.
 
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In all honesty the IPB contest was one of the most unseemly displays I have ever witnessed LOL hehehe

In the end I was thrilled that Ehren won, as he was something of a protege of mine, and a lovely young man, but there was a lot of bad behaviour on show from some contestants throughout!
 
Caliburn said:
Do you think in celebration that xenForo is once again in full swing the software should receive a new default skin?
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No. The only thing that should be done to the skin, is it turned into a responsive style. The style is irrelevant beyond selling the software IMHO, as very few people actually keep the default style, instead opting for something custom, modified slightly, a pre-made style or combination of all the above.

I want Xenforo concentrating on delivering the best default software system with additional products... not getting into managing multiple styles.
 
As cool as it would be (yay...new stuff) I still believe default is still the best skin to show off xenforo and remain default. It's really east to customize and it radiates in the chosen colors for the company as chosen by KAM.
 
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