Should the forum theme be changed?

[Johnny1975]

The first one : It looks clean and tidy, but the shade of blue isn't as vibrant as the other one that I mentioned before.

The second one : It looks very simple, and the large writing is good. The shade of blue is better.

If I had to choose I'd say the second one. For me, so far, it's a race between the one that I suggested before and the second one.

I've seen your other site and I like it. Yes I agree with everything you say about those pseudoskeptics. The difference in mindset between those people and normal people, people who are willing to combine "evidence" and intuition, anecdotal evidence, and gut feeling, and just basically have a well rounded method of thinking, and are openminded, is massive. It's like night and day. They're on a completely different wavelength, and it's very hard to get them to understand anything beyond their rigid, left brain thinking. I really don't like those people, they act like such smartasses but their intelligence is limited. There's no way of interacting with them other than to troll them. I used to try and have debates with them but they're impossible, so now I just have a laugh winding them up. They're closedminded about god, conspiracies, spirituality, alternative medicine, and so on and so on. They're completely hopeless. And they're so politically correct. I really don't get on with them at all.

When I was at school there was a kid who played the piano and violin. He was considered to be accomplished, on in a way he certainly was. But I'm a musician too and so was my friend. One day we tried to work with him, and he couldn't do anything unless it was written down in sheet music form. Everything had to be explained to him in a technical way. I thought to myself "sure, he plays instruments and he's technically very good, but that is not a musician". No disrespect to him but that's how it was. It's the same with those so called skeptics. The difference between their perceived intelligence and their actual intelligence is large.

They laugh at David Icke, Alex Jones, Rupert Sheldrake, Graham Hancock, Michael Tsarion, and anyone with another point of view, but those people are proper scientists, researchers, and thinkers. I've watched a few debates between atheists and theists, and although I don't care if people don't believe in god, the arguments that the atheists use are just stupid. Richard Dawkins asks, if there's a creator then who created the creator? What a stupid, juvenile, badly thought out question. Another argument is that if there's a creator, it would have to be infinitely complex in order to be able to create everything, but, as we all know, in nature, things start off simple and evolve to complexity. He's totally missing the point. I can't even be bothered to explain why.

By the way when are you thinking of making the changes to the forum?

[Winston]

By the way when are you thinking of making the changes to the forum?

I haven't decided yet. It would take time to do that anyway, as I'd have to export the database and then try to import it into the new forum. Very tedious stuff.

[Winston]

Hi all,
I'm planning to upgrade this forum to phpbb3. So now is the time to make your voice heard. Please review the themes linked above from the phpbb demo page, and post your opinion as to which theme you like best.

You can also browse themes on the phpbb demo page and tell us all which theme you like best:

https://www.phpbb.com/styles/demo/3.0/?from=submenu

You can also find more forum themes on the phpbb hacks site. Here is their demo page as well, where you can preview the styles.

http://www.phpbbhacks.com/phpbb3/demo/

Here is yet another site with phpbb themes:

http://demo.phpbb3styles.net

I still think a blue and white combination theme is the best, because it's the most normal and white represents truth. But we could consider a greenish theme as well. I would consider a grayish theme too, but gray seems a bit gloomy.

[Johnny1975]

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/styl ... yler/demo/

Best shade of blue out of the lot, I think.

[Winston]

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/styl ... yler/demo/

Best shade of blue out of the lot, I think.

That one is nice, but the dark blue is too vivid and there is too much of a contrast.

Check out this bluish theme called Proglass. It looks great doesn't it? Nice and compact too.

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/proglass/demo/

That's another one to consider.

[Winston]

Winston, some places to emulate would be the So Suave forums and Post Masculine. Not because of their content but just the layouts of the forums.

Can you post the links to both of those forums, so we can see them?

Btw, Johnny1975, what do you think of the JREF forum? It uses a red and white theme for some reason, but it works for them.

[Winston]

Alright I think I have it nailed down to two primary choices:

Proglass
https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/style/proglass/demo/

Artodia Elegance
https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/styl ... ance/demo/

Let me know what you think. Both are very nice, but the Artodia Elegance theme is the one that looks similar to this one, hence will not deviate from what you are all used to here.

[Johnny1975]

The JREF forum is pretty good. I just think you should keep the blue and white colour scheme. JREF in blue / white would be ok I guess.

I prefer the colour of proglass, but I like the clarity and the wideness of elegance.

Are you sure you don't want to go with freestyler?

Is there a way to keep the design of one of those forum types but change the colour scheme? I'm sure there must be. I once created a forum and I had loads of choice about the colours, regardless of the general design.

[Winston]

The JREF forum is pretty good. I just think you should keep the blue and white colour scheme. JREF in blue / white would be ok I guess.

I prefer the colour of proglass, but I like the clarity and the wideness of elegance.

Are you sure you don't want to go with freestyler?

Is there a way to keep the design of one of those forum types but change the colour scheme? I'm sure there must be. I once created a forum and I had loads of choice about the colours, regardless of the general design.

Yes there is a way, by editing the CSS templates, but it's not that easy. It depends on whether the theme developer has made it easy or not. Some now let you select the color of the theme first before downloading.

Btw, check out the SubAndreas theme. It looks similar to a classic Vbulletin theme and is a nice shade of blue too.

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/styl ... as08/demo/

Yeah I don't like the freestyler theme. The dark blue in it is too vivid and the contrast too great.

[Johnny1975]

Subandreas is ok. Really, they're all ok in one way or another. I don't know anymore, it's like being in a sweetshop, faced with loads of choice. Just follow your heart, and all will be well.

[Winston]

I'm having second thoughts about upgrading this forum. We are all used to this theme and it's layout. It's become like second nature to us to use it. Are you all sure you want to cause everyone to adjust to a new theme?

What do you think?

[xiongmao]

I hate it when forums change. Change is bad. Keep it like it is, but maybe do the occasional tweak.

[Jester]

I hate it when forums change. Change is bad. Keep it like it is, but maybe do the occasional tweak.

+1

.......

There's nothing wrong with the colour scheme or anything like that. It's just little things like :
............

* The bit near the top where you can "View Latest 100 Topcs", "View Your Posts" etc, at first I thought it was an advert. It just looks weird, it looks like one of those google sponsored ads. I understand that what it says implies that it's part of the forum, but when you're online your attention span is very short and sometimes you don't pay attention, which is why it's so important that everything is absolutely clear.

* When I received my first ever private message, and it said you have 1 message, I seriously thought it was one of those adverts that tries to trick you into clicking on it.

* There's an awful lot of advertising here. In a way I don't mind that much because it's always nice to see loads of women smiling at you, but I don't know, maybe it might cheapen the whole look of the place for some people. I'm not that bothered about it but perhaps others are. But I do understand that you get revenue from it so I guess it's up to you.

* Overall the look of the forum could be tidied up and made more professional / uniform. But somehow, strangely, it has a certain odd look which is also kind of appealing. Perhaps you could combine the two somehow. i.e. professional but with character...........

^^^^^^^^^^
I agree with all these points.

Some others:

Improve appearance by eliminating too-many-headlines. A little too cheesy and garish. Too many signs to read all at once means no signs are effective.

Main homepage doesn't emphasize the forum enough.

Keep tweaking the site to solve bugs and to keep the page loading speed up.

Add an index of archived old posts (perhaps). I know there is a search feature but we all get lazy sometimes.

Create a separate subsection of threads that compare different parts of the word. Move old threads as necessary.

Add tags to threads, like blogposts have, to aid in searches. (maybe)

Make it easier to see see a list of members, and scan down it, in order to send a PM.

Include the previous text like a "quote" when someone "replies" to a PM.

Add a "thanks" button or a "like" button to the bottom of posts.

***** BTW I was going to say "good on you" for adding the FB share thing etc. (Not that I'm going to use it LOL.) But now I don't see it??

One thing I did like on the
http://www.rationalskepticism.org/
site that Johny1975 recommended was the print option.

All in all I would just keep cleaning up, neatening up, and benchmarking good features from other forums.

[Johnny1975]

It often takes ages for the page to open. Sometimes it literally takes tens of attempts. It's the same with the women's forum, although it's not as bad.

[Johnny1975]

Seriously Winston, you need to change the forum. I always have problems opening pages. It can't be my computer or internet connection because it only happens with this forum. If it wasn't for the fact that I have shortcuts to links on my desktop I'd rip my hair out at the thought of having to type www........ every single time, again and again until it works. Also I hate the fact that when you open a thread it doesn't go to the last page, it goes to the first page and you have to click again on the last page number, and when you do a search for the last 100 threads you can't tell when the last post was written. It's so painful that sometimes I just quit. And right now it's too hot for all that. It's really annoying.