Changing a forum's look

[Flurry]

Do you feel its sometimes necessary to change your forum's look every 4 to 5 months? Cause I know that the way a forum looks can sometimes help boost member interest in the place again. Especially if its a new change. Small or big. Main reason I ask this is cause its been kind of quiet lately at the forum I run. And the guy that actually owns InvestComics doesn't seem to agree that a change is really necessary.



EDIT: Come to find out he does agree.

 

[McConnaughay]

I get bored very often when things stay the same for far to long, after four or five months I will usually rejuvenate the entire appearance and leave the former skin as a bonus on the Skin Selector.

 

[Flurry]

Ah. I think that might be the case with my members. I could be wrong though.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Its good to change the skin every once in a while.. However if you have a skin selector, then it doesn't matter. The members themselves can change the look of the forum at will.

 

[Flurry]

Oh we do have that. Proboards offers it. And we did have several skins. Until Jay wanted there to be only one skin.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Oh we do have that. Proboards offers it. And we did have several skins. Until Jay wanted there to be only one skin.

Bad idea.



On an old forum I would only offer one skin because the forum was on phpbb and it was way too much work to have multiple skins... (updating member's adverts / installing modifications etc all require several skin file edits)

There were countless feedback threads with people unhappy with the lack of selection.



Now that I am on vB its easy to offer several skins because modifications automatically install.. There is only a mod or two Ive used that required me to go in and do manual edits.

Also we have something that fits everyone's tastes.. Dark based, light based, full/fluid width, fixed width, even a pink one.

 

[Bluezone777]

It's always best to offer options when it's possible. I added skins over time but kept everything up so there is something for everyone. I couldn't do that when I was on IF though which is pretty much the thing that got me to convert the board to ZB.

 

[Flurry]

Bad idea.



On an old forum I would only offer one skin because the forum was on phpbb and it was way too much work to have multiple skins... (updating member's adverts / installing modifications etc all require several skin file edits)

There were countless feedback threads with people unhappy with the lack of selection.



Now that I am on vB its easy to offer several skins because modifications automatically install.. There is only a mod or two Ive used that required me to go in and do manual edits.

Also we have something that fits everyone's tastes.. Dark based, light based, full/fluid width, fixed width, even a pink one.

I realize its a bad idea. But its what he wanted. I might bring up the subject to him again. Or start a thread for it in feedback.

 

[Kingmush]

I think changing a forum's look is a huge part of keeping interest. Currently I'm going through a forum change (and sort of topic focus change as well) for my forum and I believe after it we will regain a lot of our lost activity.



As for the skin discussion, one skin is a bad bad idea and I actually don't know of that many places who only have one skin. Multiple skins are the norm nowadays.

 

[activeboards.org]

Lots of sites stay with just 1 skin. As long as it is not too dark I don't care. I actually installed several on mine including a dark one I found. It is dark but surprisingly not to hard to read. And I just switched to phpbb3 for better themes than smf etc. Not too hard to switch or install skins.

 

[Flurry]

Nice Org. Well I talked to Jay earlier about using the Multi skin selector again and he basically said no. Feels the place needs one skin to have an 'identity'. But we are probably bound to change up the skin's look once our Banner Competition is over with to match with the Banner.

 

[Novax]

I like to change the look of a forum every six months, but I think it is always good to have some for members to choose from x)

 

[Kingmush]

I don't agree that having only one skin = an identity. Even if it's a really good skin. Maybe I just like to give my members choices...

 

[Flurry]

While I may have lost the argument concerning the skin look. I didn't lose the argument in changing up the ordering of some of our sections. So I'm very happy with that.

 

[Crusader]

Its good to change the skin every once in a while.. However if you have a skin selector, then it doesn't matter. The members themselves can change the look of the forum at will.

Yeah, but there is also layout changes and whatnot to take into consideration of changing the look of a forum.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Yeah, but there is also layout changes and whatnot to take into consideration of changing the look of a forum.

You mean like rearraging the forum locations? Such as moving general discussion to the bottom and the news forum to the top?

 

[Crusader]

You mean like rearraging the forum locations? Such as moving general discussion to the bottom and the news forum to the top?

Aye, moving, adding, removing all that good stuff, it changes the image of the forum just as much as a skin changed does.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I think it would also confuse / aggrivate people who have gotten comfortable with the way things are.

 

[Flurry]

I think it would also confuse / aggrivate people who have gotten comfortable with the way things are.

Yeah, more then likely would.

 

[sbfc]

I don't think it really matters for very big forums, but for smaller scale forums it's definitely a good idea to get a new look every few months or so.