By Design (split from 'Congrats!')

[dlodoski]

Happy to have the new forum, for sure!

Just work on its looks, it's a little ugly right now

In what way?

[klib21]

No offense, it just looks a little "default" right now. Stylize! Dress it up!

I know it's still really early. There's no rush.

[Duncan Edwards]

I know it's still really early. There's no rush.

Whew! I'm glad the pressure is off.

Stay tuned friend. Rome wasn't built in a day.

[Fred588]

I am very certain that constructive sugestions regarding the esthetics of this forum will be well-received, but I also think we must remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder (which is also to say a matter of individual taste. There is also a strong argument to be made for being very careful about over-customization. Whenever non-standard changes are introduced to a web site it makes site maintenance more difficult. Worse, if those non-standard changes are not very carefully documented it can lead to the near impossibility of site maintenance if any new person has to take over that job. This is not to say that changes should never be made, only that they should be very carefully considered.

Happy to have the new forum, for sure!

Just work on its looks, it's a little ugly right now

[schlamm]

*

[dlodoski]

No offense, it just looks a little "default" right now. Stylize! Dress it up!
I know it's still really early. There's no rush.

And no worries, either.

As Fred pointed out, we are striving to keep customization to a minimum. The theme being used is Pro Silver, which is the default theme for this version of phpBB. There are other themes available from third party sources, but they do come with a stability (and possibly performance) penalty.

I went with generic icons because IMO the goodies are inside each of the forums, and we don't need to plaster the place with sinking images, for example.

I will be replacing the logo at the top left of the pages very soon. And we will be enhancing and rotating the drawings on the disclaimer page. But otherwise, we're looking for a content/participation driven site as opposed to a design statement.

[Nessie]

I figure, I'm SO grateful that you guys built this so fast and that it already runs so well that a little bit of blatant clip art here and there ain't gonna upset me any. The quicksand waiting for me behind it is what counts. Over time, you guys'll tweak things and maybe you'll exchange some of the graphics when you bump into something you like better, but I've not had a single technical glitch with this place yet and I sure ain't gonna say a word about what color its "skin" is.

I prefer simplicity over flash and dash anyway. Too much stuff on computers these days overloads everything with extraneous bells and whistles. Suddenly stuff won't move or locks up...and all they did was try to spice up the "theme".

More isn't always better. You've done great.

Nessie

[Boggy Man]

Too much stuff on computers these days overloads everything with extraneous bells and whistles. Suddenly stuff won't move or locks up...and all they did was try to spice up the "theme".

This also seems to be a fitting statement for Microsoft Windows® as well.

[MadMax359]

one thing i prefer over DS.... when you click on a thumbnail and get the full sized picture, you go back rather than X-ing out.. so you're still in the same folder for the next picture

[Sandy Place]

For my part, the design is functionally adequate.
Additional adornment almost results in reduced performance, which is not a valid trade-off, in my opinion.

One question about the site; what determines the order in which topics are displayed within a given section?
It doesn't appear to be either the initial posting date or the last posting date.
Not a big deal, just curious.

And thanks to Dave, Duncan, Fred, Robert, and anyone else I missed for creating the site.
It is appreciated very much!

Cheers,
sp