This forum could do with a makeover.

i have a suggestions for the forum look, its very simple at the moment, yes i know, simple is sometimes better, but havent you ever thought of going for a more graphical look, you know, inplement some photoshop art into the look of the forum.

this forum would look alot better with a sort of advanced tech look, best colors would be in the reigion of:
BLACK
SILVER
BLUE.

instead of having these dark blue rectangular bars, make them curved on the edges, add some graphics into them, like gradients and indent lines, and for the actual background, what is it at moment?, cream, or grey white?, change that to somthing a little darket, i dont mean to dark were its making everyhitng around you look dark, i mean just a little, maybe a blueish background, and a differnet color font.

 

I agree to a point. I appreciate artistic beauty as much as the next guy and thoroughly admire a artsy web site but it's not really the point of this forum. I realize you were pushing for the tech-minimalistic look but it still sounds like it may come across as a little distracting with the photoshop work and different background. The forum is here to help people and give us a place to 'hang out' and learn a thing or two. It would be nice to have a very wizz bang theme but at the moment I think the admins are pretty much booked. Still nice thought.

 

yea, but it does need a better template, ace templates keep people on forums for longer in some cases, i dont see how it would distract people from the actual forum, i dont mean an OTT template, just a simple photoshop artfarty kool template.

 

I do definatly see what you're getting at there. A sweet looking forum is a more attractive place to stick around at but I guess it's just not something Sniper, B, or AT can do right now. I think the banner could be very cool if Waffles or someone gave it a go, I'm getting a bit tired of the components on the white background deal but it's not a big deal.

 

I'm in the philosophy that small is beautiful, and {fast+clean} > {pretty+bloated} any day. If you can have both, cool. If not, deal with minimalistic yet functional. There are enough dialup people on the site from day to day that adding gobs of eye candy would harm a lot more than help. Besides, some of the most popular sites on the Internet are the most simplistic. If the content doesn't bring people in, I for one don't want the freaking decorations to do so. If that was the case, we'd be getting all the wrong kind of traffic.

-AT

 

that slash dot is simple, but its better look somehow

 

I think having something overly complicated or dark makes it harder to read or is distracting. What's the point of answering questions or giving advice if it's hard to read.
The other thing is that HWF is set to match with our sister site Zone365. We like to have a single universal look, and that'd mean we'd have to update that site too.

So, basically, as far as this request goes, the answer is basically, no.

 

well do both of the sites, i dont mean, have it same as that slash dot site, just somthing simaler that looks good, but maybe light colors instead of dark, take ideas and create somthing very simple, yet amazing.

 

I totally agree with Ex, B and AT on this one.

The site needs to look sleek and crisp, and make reading the content easy for anyone to access.

This look accomplishes just that, if we add fancy buttons, curvy sides and a 'tech' look, whilst could be seen as related to the content, it would take attention *away* from the forums themselves.

There are many forums out there, with some very attractive designs, that took a long time, no doubt, but the forums are empty, with very little visitors or posting occuring.

This site has a tonne of traffic, and the site needs to appeal to the vast majority, and this style does. Clean, sharp and sleek.

For certain boards, for example Graphic Design or a Clan site, futuristic buttons and shiny metallic sides may be desired, but here and Z365, simple yet attractive styles are needed to suit the general audience.

 

well, at least, the blue bars could do with rounding off on the edges.

 

I like the current deisgn of the forums. I liked it before i liked it after, i dont want too many images if i did id visit a graphics site not a hardware forum

 

you're determined willhub heh, personally i like the way it looks, simple, clean and good colours...

 

ahhhgrrr, you dont get it, all i am saying is those blue lines, change em so there curved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on the edges, thats not going to put people off, omg this forum has curved edges on the bard , this is'nt, i am outa here, like thats ever going ot happen.