Okay, here's the deal.

In the next month or so we're going to be having some major updates around here. One of these will be a potential new style.

Basically what I need from you are ideas on what you want the site to look like. I'll be hiring a designer for this job.

I know of some of your have mentioned the current look is too dull - that's been noted.

So what else needs improved cosmetically? Feel free to list (in this thread only :p) some example sites that you like the design of.

Thanks,

I think I brighter colour scheme would be better, to be honest. This whole grey thing is a little...well, sterile.

I think "bright" might be pushing it. :p

I've had a surf of the various forums on the net and the best layouts seem to be the vbulletin ones. There are a lot of others out there that are very confusing and a lot duller than this grey.

I like the picture at the top of the page of the hand and wonder whether a newer image would freshen it up a tad.

As for colour; I saw a nice vbulletin one in pale green with darker green heading print (main print being in black) and another similar in blue.

More smilies would be wonderful and I like the idea they have on wf.com of having the mods and reviewers listed so you know exactly who to go to when you need help.

Personally speaking, an idiots guide on how to do things would also help. For example: a place where someone can find out how to do quotes (multiples and from different members) and how to put pictures in. That sort of thing.

Hope this helps.:)

I actually really like the current look of the site. When I first arrived, my first impression was, "Good! This site looks like it's a notch above. I should find some people here serious about writing.

The neutral color scheme doesn't scream for attention. Instead, the focus is on the text content, which seems best to me.

This is not to criticise the look of other sites. A forum for discussing a popular TV series does well with a colorful, high contrast appearance. But I honestly believe that if we go for a more trendy-looking style, we'll see a greater influx of the dweebs who take their pleasure in making as big a splash as possible, leaving chaos in their wake. That type seems particularly drawn to bright colors and a busy composition. Maybe it's an attention span thing.

Ok, I'm officially rambling now, so it's time to stop.

I concur with Cogito;

When I first opened the homepage of WF.org I found the layout to be very neat and easy to navigate. (COUGHCOUGHlookatwritingforums.comCOUGHCOUGH)
The current scheme is pleasant and is condusive for writing. However several members seem to want a bit more vibrancy- I agree that a few optional coats of colour wouldn't be so bad, but the fundamental feeling should stay the same.

I strongly agree that I find WF.com to be quite untidy

Also, a brighter colour! I was thinking a bit more darker really!

Like navy blue or something!

i'm with cog and myst... if it ain't broke, don't 'fix' it!

it's a site for writers, not artists, so the less intrusive the 'style' is, the better...

The intention I believe is to still keep this orginal style while introducing more ones possibly.

A bit of Variety can't do any harm

I also agree with cogito and Myst. I had an account on WF.com at the same time as this one but stuck to this as I felt it was easy to navigate and I wasn't going to be distracted by images or silliness.

wf.com has alot of arrogant members and the mods there aren't really too friendly either.

As for style I have seen a good amount of forums done in black and red and they look really good or black and blue.

I do think the style choices we have are a little mundane the greyish green or the defult style blue (the one I use) are a little dull and mundane. I think maybe if you added some more colour choices it would give all the members a good choice then those that wih a different colour can have it while those that don't can stick with the original.

A couple more forums would be good too makes the place a little bigger and gives more choice. of forums to post in.

yes more smilies would also be kool.

I've had a surf of the various forums on the net and the best layouts seem to be the vbulletin ones. There are a lot of others out there that are very confusing and a lot duller than this grey.

Yup. That's why I'm running vbulletin - because it's amazing. Fantastic features and clean feel.

As for colour; I saw a nice vbulletin one in pale green with darker green heading print (main print being in black) and another similar in blue.

Eh, that's sorta vague. I think I'd need an actual link to take your feedback to heart. :p

More smilies would be wonderful and I like the idea they have on wf.com of having the mods and reviewers listed so you know exactly who to go to when you need help.

Smilies, possibly. I'm just not sure they're needed... and I don't want to add too much clutter.

As for a list of mods and such, you can view that here (http://writingforums.org/showgroups.php). (link is on the bottom of the homepage)

I actually really like the current look of the site. When I first arrived, my first impression was, "Good! This site looks like it's a notch above. I should find some people here serious about writing.

The neutral color scheme doesn't scream for attention. Instead, the focus is on the text content, which seems best to me.

Excellent. That's what I was hoping for. :D Personally, I agree, but I think that several of the users would like another option.

This is not to criticise the look of other sites. A forum for discussing a popular TV series does well with a colorful, high contrast appearance. But I honestly believe that if we go for a more trendy-looking style, we'll see a greater influx of the dweebs who take their pleasure in making as big a splash as possible, leaving chaos in their wake. That type seems particularly drawn to bright colors and a busy composition. Maybe it's an attention span thing.


heh. I've never noticed that.

A few questions: would you like a 1) more colorful skin or a 2) darker skin?

And it is my intent to leave this skin still selectable, so no worries (for a while, anyway).

From a readability perspective, I think light backgrounds with dark text are more readable and result in less eyestrain, at least in the principle reading areas.

Once there are a number of skins to choose from, the question still remains, what default skin do you want to present the first impression to new arrivals?

From a readability perspective, I think light backgrounds with dark text are more readable and result in less eyestrain, at least in the principle reading areas.

Once there are a number of skins to choose from, the question still remains, what default skin do you want to present the first impression to new arrivals?

Chances are we're only adding one additional one for now.

The new skin will hopefully have a cleaner, more professional feel. Chances are that will become the default.

i dpnt suppose it will have a black look will it or a darker colour.

i dpnt suppose it will have a black look will it or a darker colour.

The design hasn't been started yet, so nothing's set in stone. I'm not a huge fan of black and really dark colors, but it is an option.

Well I would love to see the forum in black and red to be honest lol but I love the look of this forum. :D
I have visited at least 40 forums or more now and they really have over done it in a major way.
I think that maybe if you keep the grey, but just add a little hint of colour to it. Maybe change the header colours or something.
Personally I wouldn't want the forum skin to change, so as long as you keep this skin as an option, I am sure everyone will be happy.
But if you were to use a darker colour, I'd only use it in the headers, or something like that.
As Cogito has stated, dark colours can strain the eyes.
Also I don't think brown is a good colour to be honest, nor is purple or pink lol but that is just my opinion anyways. :D

Well either way you go about it, I am sure we will all be happy.
But stick to the lighter colours I would suggest for the most part, to keep it easy on the eyes and so you don't lose that professional look which a lot of us have stated we really do like!!!

~Tor

I'm in agreement that there is nothing wrong with the layout of the site and nothing really wrong with the colour. Personally speaking though, grey isn't fresh to me and doesn't inspire me. So I've done some more digging and I hope this helps:

General Chat Forum (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=19)

Architecture General - MSDN Forums (http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=228&SiteID=1)

GeneralForum.com - General Forum - Talk about anything (http://forums.nurv.com/general/)

General Forums (http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tt.asp?forumid=2)

You can lose yourself for hours in this one:

Forums Rankings - vBulletin forums, all languages language, website ranking by posts (http://rankings.big-boards.com/?filter=vBulletin,all)

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/

And then there's vbulletins own one:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/

Those are the ones out of all I found that instantly looked pleasing to the eye. I have no idea what they're about so please don't blame me if I've put something risky there. I just looked at the initial colour and lay out.

As has already been pointed out though, there is nothing wrong with what is already here. For me, it's the people I come here for not the colour. I hope this helps.

Maybe a goldenish (not solid gold egg gold) light and creamy? dark txt?

Blue. I want blue.

Blue is universal.

Blue is good.

i think it should be quite a light, creamy colour with one colour, maybe blue or green, used for headings and things like that. an text should be kept dark, definatly. actually, i do like the layout etc of this site, i mean if you compare this to other writing ones it looks so much better and newer, but the colour is just a little too dull. it makes the place seem sort of . . . desolate. i wouldn't go cluttering it all up though with lots of bright colours or anything as that would look tacky. maybe like a light bluey/greeny colour would be nice, or a dark purple, that would be good. sorry if this hasn't really helped much.
Heather

I'm sure the orginal style will stay, just more will be added

I am a fan of some blueish/navy colour to be introduced.

I would think if you introduce a few skins it should fill everyones appitite. :)





~Raven.

Alright, everyone seems to be alright with blue, a lighter background where text will be, the current sizes, and more darker colors. So here is my monochromatic solution:

- Areas that are as dark as the 'View First Unread' should be black with either a white or sky blue text, I feel this would add a bit of elegance while not making it hard to read due to the small amount

- The portions with the same shade as the sides should be navy with a white text

- The parts as dark as where it gives information of posters should be a cornflower blue because I like that shade and it will add a bit of brightness that some people seem to want while simultaneously inhibiting its ubiquitousness

- And finally, the area with the most focus should be a pastel sky blue (matching the text in the first part and not making the forum appear overly bright due to a duller light blue), this would also allow for us to have black text

Don't ask me why I'm so in to colors, I just am okay?

Feedback on the plan??

sounds good, but not crystal clear to me as of yet

What do you mean by that? What's not clear?

what the style would look like

It's not really a change in style, just color. I know you don't have a preview, but I don't believe it should be extremely difficult to see. Just think 'blue'.

Though I wouldn't mind seeing the writing area a little bit wider.

any particular shade of blue?

I've seen on other forums that a person can modify their own account so that they can view the forum with their own choice of skin.

Same here?

Yes, I believe you can change your forum skin within the control panel

Otherwise, there wouldn't be much use of introducing new styles as there could only be one ( like invision free )

If you could only have one skin on vbulletin then I would pick this as default for the simple fact it is clean and is a writing based theme

Well, Whisp... I've included 3 different shades in my description. Navy Blue, Cornflower Blue, and a Pastel Sky Blue... along with a little bit of black. The way they would be implemented is shown in my other post.

hmm, that might look good *goes to look up cornflower blue* :P

Hmm, looked it up in google images just there, very attractive.

Perhaps these colors could be looked into Daniel?

Hmm that's gorgeus, might be my new fav colour!

Sorry, Cornflower Blue is MY favorite. :P

lol :p

Oh I much prefer burple. Yeah, let's have a burple forum!!! :cool: :D

burple lol

You should copyright that!

burple lol

You should copyright that!

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:D :D :D :cool:

:eek:

lol

lol I know, I know. I'm in a slapstick mood this evening :D

keep it grey! grey is the new brown ya know. LoL
I am going to make "I heart grey" shirts-whose with me?