I put up a new style we may make into a default.
At the very bottom of your screen, on the left, there’s a drop down where you can switch from Default style to “Basic Blue Fixed Width”.
I think I want to add a little more color to it (you may see us experimenting with that).
Let me know how you usable you find it.
i like the forum default better than the blue..The blue style just seems like there is too much going on on the screen..it’s more visually confusing. The default style while maybe plain to some; is much more relaxing to work with and easier to identify newly posted threads..It’s more pleasing to the eye and appears less complicated. Even the default style is more colorful than the majority of forums out there. I think you should concentrate on keeping a relaxing page thats pleasing to stay on for longer periods of time(simple can end up being the better choice). Just my humble opinion.
Agree with Cloud9. I like the default better. But even that is still a tad too wide for my basic window (I like smaller windows so I can keep track of what else is going on with my system). I’m not a fan of full-screen windows. At least I can scroll over a bit to read the text at the expense of seeing the poster’s ID/avatar/etc.
“New and Improved” often isn’t…
I thought the Blue fixed width one was simpler?
The default one looks like more of a big, confusing mess to me.
Interesting!
Thanks for the objective opinion.
I wouldn’t launch the blue fixed one without altering the colors to be more like the default, by the way (they’re changeable). I definitely agree on readability! I don’t thing the color scheme the way it is, is as easy on the eyes as the default.
I thnk part of the deal is that many of use here at the moment “came over” from another forum that uses a similar “skin” and we are used to it.
I’ve been to other vBulletin powered sites and have seen the various layouts available and different color schemes. I find I really like this “simple” one about the best. But that’s just me. As long as I have a choice I don’t see anything wrong with offering a variety of layouts/schemes.
(Do I sense another “poll” coming up?)
I think a poll should be made in the lounge on which layout to go with default or blue.
Why not just leave the choice to the users?
I don’t want my forum to look like other forums, that’s why I’m changing the default.
I’ll keep the vbulletin default as an option, of course. Anyone who’s more comfortable with it will have that option.
Honestly, I wish there were “dressed up” and even easier to read versions of the default. There’s plenty of room to clean it up and make it sparkle.
Unfortunately, nobody seems to make those. The blue one I have here is one of the few that doesn’t overboard, and make your forum look like a game of Doom. 
Maybe you misunderstood, I meant have both as an option and leave the choice to the users, like it is now.
Right, both will be an option. You can keep the standard vb look, if you want.
The only change I intended is to to change the default so new users will see something else, so it won’t look like every other vb out there. If not to the test blue one, then something else.
I won’t take away the standard vb one as an option, because I know many are comfortable with it.
The big reasons for changing the default for newbies is for a sense of identity, so you have an idea of where you are. I saw someone else on this forum mention that they use 4 vbulletins, and sometimes don’t know where they are when they’re engrossed in the topics, because they all look the same.
I’d prefer the default default to be unique, and then give you the option to make it look the same as everything else - the same as it is right now, but backwards.
Thats sounds like a good idea. It will give all of us a choice and newcomers something different so they can differentiate from all the rest of the plain looking forums.
Just so long as all users are made aware that there is an option and they do have choices. Perhaps a forum “sticky” (maintained only be administrators) that would summarize such things.
And of the 4 vBulletin boards I access I notice both pheromone boards are blue and both anime boards are brown/tan… (unless they’ve changed since my last visit).
Good idea. That’s possible.
Interesting. Thanks for that.
Maybe I should go with a red framework. That seems “too hot”, though, for day to day reading.
I think that’s why you see everything muted – forums are intended to be high participation webpages. As someone said above, you want to be easy on the eyes.
I’m not sure what all you have changed of late, but the forum pages now fit inside my “standard” smaller window rather than being something I have to scroll to one side to read at the expense of the Posters info (name etc) on the left of the screen. I personally dislike pages that fill teh entire screen. Some sites I’ve been to are even too large to fit my 800x600 resolution. Bigger is NOT better. And I’ve learned from working with people in general to accomodate the lowest common denominator. Programmers who insist on using the latest and greatest are a pain. What would happen if McDonald’s only let you use the drive-through if you had a car that cost more than $50,000? You have to make it easy for anyone, not just a select few. Unless that is your business eg Tiffany’s (although even they are coming out with a “budget” silver jewelry line…).
I’m actually shooting for the lowest common denominator. That’s why I made that change.
I had THOUGHT the way I had it setup was perfect for 800x600 screens, but I was wrong when I actually used a utility to test it.
When I did my recent 800x600 test, I noticed you had to scroll left to right to read everything. Yuck.
From your post, I didn’t quite understand if you prefer it the old way – too wide (requiring you to scroll left to right) – or the new way (which adapts to your window size).
I hate left-right scrolling myself. I don’t mind up and down, but left and right really bugs me.
Onto the somewhat related topics, which I so love…
Tiffany should never make a cheap line. It would damage their position if they did it under the Tiffany name. There’s plenty of examples of that.
I sort of like how Mercedes ruined their business, though. Now the cheapest Mercedes looks almost as sleek as their highest end McLaren model that costs something like 14 times as much. I can live with that (as long as I want the cheapest model). 
I’d hate to be the guy who drops between a third to a half million dollars on the McLaren, though, and have it be virtually indistinguishable from their base model car which costs little more than a Toyota Camry. Ouch.
i don’t mean to sound negative, but most web pages are designed for 1024x768 resolution. This is generally the standard desktop resolution used by the majority of PC monitors. 800x600 isn’t high enough resolution to fit most things these days.
You don’t sound negative at all, but are most websites really designed for that size? (I run at least that size, so I don’t notice anything being “too small”)
Unfortunately, not all screens are at least 1024x768 yet. I just noticed that even smartmones.com needs to be shrunk a little to properly fit 800x600. (I just got a utility that simulates 800x600 perfectly)
The last brower stats for savvy users are here:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
20% of savvy internet users are still at 800x600 according to the website above. The number will be larger for more casual users (AOL, etc.)
Turning away 1 out of every 5 users is impractical.
Ofcourse you don’t want to turn away any customers by shuting out the other 20%(800x600)
I hate scrolling. And I loudly disagree that “most” users “want” 1024. I think it’s just being thrust upon them by some tech-happy programmer/designer who gets enamored of the latest and greatest gizmo. I sure as all hell don’t want it. TOO MUCH CRAP ON SCREEN! I want multple Windows visible so I can do what Windows does best. Multitask. Right now I have 5 windows open all doing different things, and while I type here another page is loading in another window.
I’m really peeved with eBay etc because I have to constantly keep scolling over. KISS!!!
I’m not sure what my “default” browser window is, but it’s smaller than 640. The current forum size I’m getting is just about perfect. If you really need something larger, get glasses. Humpf! (rant rant)
It’s the same thing with pizza companys saying pepperoni is the most popular topping. It’s one of the least popular around here, and in fact I only know one person out of about a dozen that eats it (everybody else is sausage). The sausage pizzas are the first to disappear at the stores. One pizza place owner even said he pushed it not out of demand, but because it was cheaper and less labor intensive so it was a matter of his bottom line, not necessarily what customers would prefer. One chain store in town had a deal going with a $5 special but only offered cheese or pepperoni. They were dying. They wised up and now offer sausage as well.
As for “experts.” X="unknown, “spurt”=water under pressure. Therefore = “unknown drip under pressure.” :-p
Go ahead an offer the alternatives. Just give us the choice! And maybe try the poll sometime. Would be interesting to see the results.
my pc monitor’s default resolution is 1600x1200 that makes text and icons really hard to read on the internet if I used my default res., because it makes things smaller. I’ve gotten comfortable to 1024res because I used to look at a lot of websites with 1024 formated pages so its hard to go back to 800x600 when u get used to one resolution.
I can’t get used to the Blue forum setting.