Should the forum theme be changed?

[Winston]

Ok let's do it now then. Let's start rotating them now and making everyone view them. I'd love to see their reaction. lol. Let's make Tropical Tuesday today regardless of what day it is. We'll just call today Tropical Tuesday. lol

[jamesbond]

This blue turtle theme is horrible on the eyes, please give us the option of going back to the old theme which was much easier on the eyes. Right now there is no way to go back to the old theme.

[HappyGuy]

please give us the option of going back to the old theme which was much easier on the eyes. Right now there is no way to go back to the old theme.

Why would you want to go back to the old theme

[TruthSeeker]

Quit changing the theme into these ridiculous themes like the one you have now. Just leave it at the simple light blue one.

[Moretorque]

The new forum look is to much and will attract a more immature crowd in my opinion. The way the site was before I thought was one of the cleanest best designed sites I have seen. That is why I have posted here for so many years because it's a comfortable place to write from the function and look of it.......

The small changes you made here and there in the past were great and had it going in the right direction in minute steps that made it so user friendly but to me the new change is way over the top....

One last thing, if you are going to keep it like this get rid of the dancing bears and replace with pop up space monsters... .... preferably some Starchild type monsters...

[HappyGuy]

The new forum look is to much and will attract a more immature crowd in my opinion.

@TruthSeeker But this theme has flames for poll bars.

[Winston]

The new forum look is to much and will attract a more immature crowd in my opinion. The way the site was before I thought was one of the cleanest best designed sites I have seen. That is why I have posted here for so many years because it's a comfortable place to write from the function and look of it.......

The small changes you made here and there in the past were great and had it going in the right direction in minute steps that made it so user friendly but to me the new change is way over the top....

One last thing, if you are going to keep it like this get rid of the dancing bears and replace with pop up space monsters... .... preferably some Starchild type monsters...

Lol. Those dancing bears are only there for a second. They are part of the default theme, but disappear after a second because I have a mode that places our HA custom banner at the top. Look at the top and see. This is just temporary man. For fun. Lighten up. lol

[Winston]

please give us the option of going back to the old theme which was much easier on the eyes. Right now there is no way to go back to the old theme.

Why would you want to go back to the old theme

Lol. If this forum were about Star Trek or Star Wars or sci fi, this theme would be perfect. lol

Btw, I saw that Dune movie before. It felt very long and boring and I didn't even get what was going on. It wasn't easy to follow and the satire was unusual. Not for everyone. lol

[Moretorque]

I saw Dune when it came out in 1984 and it was the biggest budget film ever at 40 mill, what a turd........ The 1984 8 million $ Terminator 1 blew it off bad. I wonder who would win in a fight Robo Cop or daa Teminator ?

[Winston]

Hi all,
After doing some thinking, I think I will make the Basic theme from Artodia to be our default theme. It looks the most modern and sleek is very close to the theme that the Rooshv forum uses. So it will replace Elegance as our default theme. However, if you prefer Elegance, you can still select it from your UCP under Board themes (after the theme rotation tour is over that is lol).

This is what the Basic theme from Artodia looks like. What do you all think? You like it?

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/basic/demo/3.2

[HappyGuy]

Hi all,
I think I will make the Basic theme from Artodia to be our default theme. However, if you prefer Elegance, you can still select it from your UCP under Board themes.

Pro-silver wasn't bad on the eyes and if I'm not mistaken it looks like the theme you had from the start so it's more or less the theme all of your past members and lurkers expect to see when they come back.

But it's a bit dated looking, which many don't mind but some people judge the quality and content of a forum based on how modern it looks. I'm not sure if you really want those people if appealing to them will make you lose returning older members. But you can try to appease both groups by getting a more modern looking theme with a similar color pattern and making sure to have a classic HA logo or banner somewhere on the front page to ensure former members aren't alienated by a completely different looking forum with little resemblance to the old one. It would also help to having Pro-silver as the first alternate option in the list and naming it "Original theme" or something like that.

You brought in Elegance some weeks ago which is awful in all respects, it's bright and not easy on the eyes, it's an ugly looking unnecessary downgrade from what you already had, and it doesn't give the forum any personality to tell visitors this isn't just another generic unoriginal forum. And no it doesn't look particularly modern, it just looks like the type of thing you'd see on a medical website. You tried the turtle theme and 1996 which were fun but too much to take in for most visitors, you should keep those as 3rd and 4th options for people who like nature or retro themes.

Right now you have a dark grey and dark blue theme, which looks okay, a bit pretentious and the buttons look too much like Facebook but with the blue boxes it still looks enough like Pro-Silver to not shock former members and former lurkers coming back after years to relive the HA forum experience. And it gives people who want dark themes because they browse at night an option. It's better to have a dark or semi-dark theme as the default, it makes the forum stand out to visitors and it's easier to switch from dark to light than from light to dark. The same way it's much more pleasant to enter a dimly lit room and have to turn on more lamps or walk closer to a lamp to read a magazine you picked up than it is to wake up in a brightly lit room and have to get up to turn off the light. Or if you jump in a car it's easier to switch the GPS from night-time mode to day-time, than it is to switch from day to night-time, because the bright white blinds you at night.

The dark or semi-dark themes are less common so they look more unique for visitors' first impressions because most big sites are forced to use dull themes with white backgrounds to play it safe and appeal to all ages and tastes. You should use that to your advantage. Dark backgrounds with bright colors create a more memorable brand image while light backgrounds all look the same. This isn't Amazon or Google or Walmart.com so you don't have to use an ugly bright white background. I don't like Artodia but it might be useful to have especially for mobile if that's what some new members and lurkers want but having both Artodia and Elegance as both your default and backup themes makes zero sense. And why are you following Roosh? We come here because we don't like his site, his videos or his forum and Roosh is a bad person who will probably be dead in the next couple years from karma catching up.

[Winston]

Happyguy,
Use your common sense. If all successful websites use white background, there's a good reason for it. It's the most universally agreeable color scheme. Just like elevator music and light instrumental music in shopping malls and big stores are there because the music is most universally agreeable and not subject to distinctive tastes. Basic logic.

You do have a good point though about a dark theme being easier on the eyes in daytime to switch to light theme, but painful to switch a light theme to dark theme in a dark room. lol. That's a good point. But since the rest of the site is in white, the forum should be too, to match. Those who want the dark theme can set it in their board preferences so that they see it every time they come here.

[Winston]

HappyGuy,
Are you saying you prefer a grey theme like these?

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/styl ... r/demo/3.2

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/styl ... n/demo/3.2

[jamesbond]

Quit changing the theme into these ridiculous themes like the one you have now. Just leave it at the simple light blue one.

I agree, Winston at least give us the option to see the forum in the old theme (the one you used to have up until you started doing all these forum changes).

[Winston]

Update:

Ok I've unlocked the forum themes now so you can select the theme you like under Board Preferences in your UCP. See here: ucp.php . You can also select the Prosilver Theme and the Dark Theme directly by clicking the links to them in the top right of the forum under the share buttons and banner. Let me know if there are any issues.

Enjoy the variety of themes to choose from everyone, and hope you all enjoyed the theme rotation tour. We should do that again sometime right? Just kidding. lol