Forum Asthetics

[Christopher Hughes]

I too like the colour scheme....very gentle on the eye. I kind of like Futuristic Metallic Pastel colour scheme. Nice! But us Europeans are a bit more 'artisic' so perhaps its not to the liking of those in the States. But I like it and very easy to read with for long times. Never get any 'hot colours' that make your eyes go all funny like other sites.

But regarding changes...Hey if the machines not broken why try to fix it!

Sometimes we dont need to try and re-invent the wheel!!!

[John Locke]

<<<-- Originally posted by Christopher Hughes : But us Europeans are a bit more 'artisic' so perhaps its not to the liking of those in the States. -->>>

Oh, Lord... Christopher, you're on your own. Get into a defensive posture and prepare for the Yank backlash. ;)

[Glen Elliott]

My opinions are not to change the color scheme- it's perfect. Very soft and subtle. As you say, 'pleasing to the eyes'.

Regarding avatar headshots....I for one think it's a good idea. I can't count how many times I simply get mixed up with names on here. I feel a simple low kb headshot would help the ease of associating the member. I for one am better at visual associations rather than by name. I really don't feel that bias will emerge due to physical appearance- after all this forum is about DV...I could care less if your fat, skinny, tatooed or whatever. What counts is the information- and the avatar headshots would just visually aid in learning and remembering our crew.
You could even reduce the possibility of abuse by limiting head-shot avatars for "major player" and above.

Oh and Chris, I happen to be an artist and graphic designer first and foremost even before DV. Being European or not has nothing to do with artistry. :)

[Mark Moore]

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Hurd : Don't you think we should adopt the highly pleasing color scheme at AVS forums? -->>>

I certainly don't want to bemoan that webmaster's choice of colors, as it's their discretion on how the site looks and everyone has their own opinion. That said, it looks like someone ate a box of Crayola's and threw up!

As for this site, I like the colors, but would not object to another "conservative" color, as long it didn't make me wear sunglasses!

I love photographs, but my fear would be that it would be a burden on the server having 4500+ members posting jpegs and gifs. I think offering a link is the best alternative.

Signature jpegs/gifs wouldn't be a very good idea either and I agree that those unfortunates with dial up could suffer (as would those who have to look at them!).

An easier method of posting urls would be great, as I can never remember the exact way it goes (I now have it written down beside my computer!).

No changes to the site wouldn't kill me either!

My two cents.

[Chris Hurd]

The deal with AVS forums, no matter what you think of their color scheme, you've got to be impressed by their numbers: 2.4 million posts, 73,000 members, over 1,000 of whom are currently online. Very fat stats there.

If we did avatars, they would most likely be limited to the moderators, and members with very high post counts.

[Ed Smith]

Is'nt there an option in your User cp to change the colour scheme of the forum?

Personally this is a great forum. I find that by far this is one of the easiest to navigate around and by far has the best content and people. Thats what makes it great.

However there is no harm to updating the default colour scheme.

All the best,

Ed

[Lorinda Norton]

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Hurd : Don't you think we should adopt the highly pleasing color scheme at AVS forums? -->>>

Tongue in cheek, I presume :-)

I'm not one of the big dogs so I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here, but I side with those who like the kennel just the way it is. And as an "unfortunate" who is stuck with dial-up for now, I appreciate the speed at which this site loads.

One last thing: this forum has a great feel to it that others lack, IMO. It reflects the good natures of its kennelmaster and moderators.

[Nathan Gifford]

Chris, I don't mind what you got now, but the AVS would be OK. Good contrasting colors are always a good idea, but I'm not sure about the hot pink.

[Curtis T. Stoeber]

The colors are pretty much cool the way they are. The more contrast, the harder the actual posts become to look at for some reason. I like the light background. If the color were to change I'd recommend only changing the part that is lavender now (the darkest color on the page). But that matches the DVi Community logo. But if it were to change, then maybe a slightly darker hue, or blue or a light gradient, if possible. The cool thing about vBulletin is you can create tons of different color schemes, and the user can select which one he/she sees in his/her user control panel.

The AVS forum is just insane. Not only does it look horrible, but those member stats are ridiculous. I moderate a forum (PHPBB) with 10,000 members and it can be a nightmare. I think the key is not to have auto-registration turned on. The AVS forums also have too many individual forums. I can understand the need for seperate forums for Mac, PC, whatnot similar to the way it is here, but that number of forums is way too much. It's almost like each different subject has it's own forum. Very hard to manage, I bet.

[Keith Loh]

I like the colour scheme. Nice blend of similar tones. Don't change it.

And do not allow graphical sigs. They just take away from the content of the message.

[Joe Carney]

I remember reading something like this at a game arcade when I lived in Texas....

'Cursing is a failed attempt by a weak mind to express itself forcefully'.

this site values content over all else. And the colors are easy on the eyes. Too much contrast is not good for your eyes when sitting in front of a monitor for long periods of time.

(Hint, I write software and one of my specialties is human interface design, grey and softer colors put less strain on the eyes even if they seem boring).

[Chris Hurd]

Rest assured that any changes we make here will be announced ahead of time and will be somewhat gradual in nature. We're not adopting the AVS color scheme (that was indeed a tongue-in-cheek comment), and if our own colors do change, it'll be in a subtle way... I agree very much that softer colors are much easier on the eyes (there's a lot to read here and we want you to stick around). I'm thinking we might shift from a lavender tone to something a bit more towards light blue. These are, of course, monumental decisions which require careful forethought and planning...

[Brad Simmons]

I'd like to give a few comments on the site if I may.

As far as the colors, they don't bother me. Eh, they could be better, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

I agree 100% that stupid smilies and avatars, or anything else that dumbs down this forum would be a step back for this community. Along with requiring full names and not handles, I think this is the #1 reason Chris has been able to keep the serious professionals and newbies in, and keep the immature riftraft out. This is one of the few forums I've seen that doesn't have any "trolls".

There are of course a few things I think would make the forum more functional, without the added costs of loading times and "kiddie features". Chris, take these with a grain of salt.

1. I agree with the whole bold quote idea. I've always had a hard time reading quotes on this forum. Again, I don't lose sleep over it, but it's a bit of an annoyance.

2. Hotlinked URLs. This is one of the few VBulliten forums I've seen that doesn't automatically hotlink the URLs. I understand that you can insert the [url] tags to make a hotlink, but most people aren't aware of this, and it's a pain to have to copy/paste.

I have a small vbulletin forum and I'm pretty sure both of these two settings can be changed with a quick click of a button in the forum options page in the admin CP.

That's about it. Other than that I think this is one of the greatest forums on the internet right now.

[Andres Lucero]

About the color scheme: you can upload many different styles for users to choose from, so if they like the default (I do) they can keep it, and if they want something different they can choose that instead.

http://www.vbulletin.com/manual/styles.html

[Yi Fong Yu]

dude i luv color. no prob. i think it creates a certain "style" if you stick with it long enough and certainly this color has 'STUCK' with the DVI community. if it were any other color i'd probably get sick and wander where my beloved DVI went.