Does style/skins matter (help)?

[pk698]

Just curious, does the theme or style you add to your forum matter? I know digital point has a huge community, yet their they just have a standard greenish color forum.

What do you guys think?

Thinking about getting a skin, but wanted to see what others have to say.

[eJM]

I rarely participate at forums that use the default style. A custom style tells me there are people there that care about the users. It's not just about the nameless, faceless traffic and the potential dollars.

I have never used a default skin and just designed a new skin for my flooring forum. I am trying to make it interesting for my members as well as more profitable for me. I think I can do both with my new design. Still chasing down gremlins though. I did an upgrade to the newest stable version of vB at the same time I introduced the new style. There can be big problems hidden in all them little pixels. :D

If you decide to go shopping for a new theme, be careful. An awful lot of designs do not comply with web standards. Lots of validation errors make it really difficult to find problems in templates and modifications. Some designers claim to not finding it necessary to maintain standards. They insist that breaking something that isn't broken is an acceptable practice. It only is if you let be acceptable. Just say NO! :D

Jim McClain

[Zachery]

Content is always more important than the style, but something after the default style can't hurt.

[MRGTB]

Without good content worth reading, a new style means ZIPPO, NANNA, NOTHING.