🎨 Theme Design Do forums need more than one theme?

[Empire]

I'm always suing discord everyday and also it's open as soon as I have my PC on, PLus I have discord on my phone as an active person ;P and so you can say I'm heavy but still I do not have extra to spend $10 a moth

 

[joelr]

View attachment 2529

Discord has more than even a light/dark mode.

Color variants. But not the placement of iconography, discussions, chats, etc.

 

[Tracy]

I think the real aspect is.. no, nobody "needs" more than 1 style. But it's nice to OFFER more than 1 style for your users so they can use something that fits their taste and not necessarily yours in some aspects. There are also technical reasons to offer a different slimmed/toned down one for your users in certain niches.

 

[Arantor]

Color variants. But not the placement of iconography, discussions, chats, etc.

Getting into pedantry over what is or is not classifiable as a theme is a waste of effort.

 

[Lucy Lacemaker]

I only have one theme for my board and keeping it that way

 

[Mike30]

In my opinion, at least two themes should be made available to choose from, in a forum. One light and one dark. This can satisfy almost all members of the forum in terms of the theme they want to use.

I agree with this.
In my case, I like the dark to help my eyes.

Its nice to have a wide selection for all flavors, but that adds a ton of work to admins and maintainers.
I was working once an extension to customize your own theme(kind of myspace at the beginning) and even the ability to share among other users.

But, the more themes, the more maintenance goes to it.

 

[Uncrowned]

A light and a dark theme set is becoming more of an expectation each year, so that is always a good idea. There really isn't anything wrong with more themes beyond that, but you do need to accept some of the challenges that come with it.

• More themes means more edits and more potential issues when you go updates and such.
• More themes also mean you need to spread your creativity out more and sadly it often means a list of mediocre themes vs one really good theme.
• Holiday changes, event images, even news about your themes are often lost or simply not noticed by your members.
• Many sites often have confusing settings for themes where guest themes are not the theme the user will see when they register or new themes are simply lost in the list as most members don't change themes anyway.

Overall there is nothing wrong with more themes, but admins need to remember that they aren't just "extra" themes, they are spreading out your creativity and time. That might be great for some communities, but harmful to others

 

[ten thousand]

For the type of community I want to participate in the more themes the better. "Branding" is for the corporate web, I want to hang out on forums that position themselves as far away from that world as possible.

 

[synpastel]

Let's be real, there's a reason why those "dark mode v. light mode" memes exist on social media. A lot of us look at sites on our phones or tablets in dark rooms, early in the AM, etc. so light skins aren't the best in my honest opinion. I prefer medium-dark skins. I also prefer minimalist skins because you have no idea whose running what internet speeds and the like.

So to answer the question, no, esp since it's impossible to please everyone.

 

[MassageMan]

My opinion is you can have many themes, one theme or two, if a community doesn't have great content it's a dead end street. Some of the biggest and most thriving forums are still using Xenforo 1x.x with millions of members. So the notion of having multiple themes, fancy features etc., will make a forum successful is misguided. Forums will always be around and people will always have a chance at success, but with social media and Facebook being around, multiple themes or pretty colors won't mean anything.

 

[Toni]

I don't think forums need too many themes. 2 themes of light mode and dark mode are fine. Whenever I get onto a forum, I always look for dark mode as that is the theme I prefer.

 

[Jane]

I have 19 themes on my site. I like to offer my users choice,..light..dark..Halloween themes..Christmas ones..

 

[Empire]

I have 19 themes on my site. I like to offer my users choice,..light..dark..Halloween themes..Christmas ones..

19 is way to much do you think? I mean it's going to take time to even update if that day comes

 

[Cedric]

19 is way to much do you think? I mean it's going to take time to even update if that day comes

Jcink does not require as much update as paid softwares do. So having 19 themes on Jcink is not as bad as you’d think.

 

[Arantor]

Jcink is a mildly improved IPB 1.3 from 20 years ago. There’s a limit to how much further it can be developed without major overhauls.

 

[Empire]

well, in that case, lucky you that's a good thing when you have an system that doesn't even need to be looked at and consider that it needs no updates

 

[Arantor]

It’s not so much that it doesn‘t “need” updates. It’s that it’s 20 year old tech, with 20 year old thinking in it. There’s only so much you *can* do with it without running into more problems.

 

[Jane]

Well what I will say in Jcink’s defence is..John..the owner..is a great guy, ALWAYS responds to support tickets..the support forum is good. Simple easy to use software..so what if it’s a bit dated compared to some others? I like it. We should form the Jcink appreciation society @Cory.

 

[Arantor]

Is it responsive yet? Other forums were doing this a decade ago.

 

[Jane]

Another of my users has 27 different themes. A very popular and lovely Jcink forum