Hey all, I'm just starting up a forum on my hosting here, and I was wondering, how do people here feel about having multiple skins?

I think just having the default skins that come with the forum and maybe one or two added on that match the style of the forum a little better, but what do you think? Should I have a dark/light added on, in addition to the default skins? and should I leave the forum default as one of the included skins? or something that fits in with my idea of what the forum looks like a little better? thanks for your opinions

Well there are for and against' of everything but this in my opinion is for!
The only problem with PHP is that:- one thing goes wrong, Everything goes down

Don't get me wrong here php scripts are fantastic!

The reasons for
Backup
User Pleasing
Error handling

And the reasons against
Uses disk space
Can make a site run slower

I personally recommend it you really can't go wrong with having to many backups! So say "what the hell" to disk space and get some really nice themes, but remember if the theme does need to be changed, it still needs to blend in with your website! You could copy the same theme and edit different colours! Just a suggestion

As for keeping your standard theme, defiantly! It always helps to keep that as a reference if something does ever go wrong! The dark light thing... As long as it still fits into your website.
Good luck with your forum!
Hope this helps
Karlos

Hi,

It's better that you create your own design, something your visitors will remember and will associate your site with that particular design.
People that have seen some forums in their lifetime ( like me ) know what the "default" is and tend to hate it. Try to add your own design.

Cheers^^

If by adding your own design you mean just changing the banner and default colors that shouldn't be too hard. Changing it further with relaying the format and layout of elements would be a nice touch but can be difficult if you don't know how to properly access and modify the existing design. This is something I've considered I wanted to do if I have some time since writing your own forum would be too much work and most likely fail unless you are real good.

If you have time and determination give it a shot but I doubt it will be an easy task.

Well, some forum engines have multiple skins as a default feature. Example is phpBB3 with the ability to install many skins for the user to choose. I say go for it.

Well, if you choose to use a super lite forum such as PunBB (my personal favorite of forums) you will have no problem with skins. The skins all have the same layout (color scheme is different), only two small css pages are required for each skin. Additionally, you can easily add your own skins by copying a stylesheet, and editing some of the color values. So with a super lite forum (which does not take much disk-space in the first place) you can load it up with different skins and not have to worry about loading your disk.


The only problems with PunBB:
1. No private messaging. However, an in forum email form makes up for this.
2. Some bugs. (I havn't found any yet, but apparently they are there)
3. Not nececerily as visually pleasing



Well aside from it not having certain features, I do believe that it should sufficiently meet your needs.

This post has been edited by KansukeKojima: Feb 20 2008, 10:14 PM

I think just having the default skins that come with the forum and maybe one or two added on that match the style of the forum a little better, but what do you think? Should I have a dark/light added on, in addition to the default skins? and should I leave the forum default as one of the included skins? or something that fits in with my idea of what the forum looks like a little better? thanks for your opinions
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