vbulletin themes are all the same!

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  • www.opensc.ws
    Banned
    • Oct 2005
    • 38
    • 3.5.x

    vbulletin themes are all the same!

    I personally think vbulletin suck when it comes to look and skins. All the skins are same, once u enter a vbulletin board with some different skin you can easily see that its vbulletin. But with phpbb or IPB its different.

    anyone else think the same?
  • filburt1
    Senior Member
    • Feb 2002
    • 6606

    #2
    Not when you rewrite some of the major templates with that in mind.
    --filburt1, vBulletin.org/vBulletinTemplates.com moderator
    Web Design Forums.net: vB Board of the Month
    vBulletin Mail System (vBMS): webmail for your forum users

    Comment

    • biggyme14
      Member
      • Jul 2006
      • 55

      #3
      That's if you use free themes. But if you buy a theme, like I did, it looks better. Just remember you get what you pay for.

      here is my forum http://www.appleuserforum.com/index.php

      It's still not done, but Its a mac forum, and looks like an Apple style.
      I don't think it looks bad.

      Comment

      • Freddie Bingham
        Former vBulletin Developer
        • May 2000
        • 14057
        • 1.1.x

        #4
        Personally, I think you see so many of the same themes because we have so many forums out there.

        Comment

        • conqsoft
          Senior Member
          • Jul 2003
          • 3803
          • 3.6.x

          #5
          Originally posted by Freddie Bingham
          Personally, I think you see so many of the same themes because we have so many forums out there.

          0wned.
          vBulletin v3.8.0's Implementation of Google Adsense Should Be Avoided At All Costs - Do Your Own Adsense Implementation

          Comment

          • Ohiosweetheart
            Senior Member
            • Dec 2005
            • 1965
            • 3.8.x

            #6
            Originally posted by biggyme14
            That's if you use free themes. But if you buy a theme, like I did, it looks better. Just remember you get what you pay for.

            here is my forum http://www.appleuserforum.com/index.php

            It's still not done, but Its a mac forum, and looks like an Apple style.
            I don't think it looks bad.
            In most cases, yes, you do get what you pay for. Not so in the case of vB styles. There are some of us out here who work damn hard to make nice quality styles at reasonable cost, and yes even free... for those who can't afford to purchase vB styles.
            Just because it's free doesn't mean it's cheap, or not as nice. You really shouldn't generalize like that.
            Peggy
            ~ normal is overrated ~

            One Buzy Mama!

            Comment

            • SaN-DeeP
              Senior Member
              • Dec 2003
              • 1352
              • 1.1.x

              #7
              have you checked princetons forums ? or hyestersisters forums ?
              TechArena - TechArena Community - Technology News - Tools Download - Tech Video - Gamer Guide - Hardware Review

              Comment

              • simsim
                Senior Member
                • Nov 2005
                • 1625
                • 3.6.x

                #8
                Originally posted by www.opensc.ws
                I personally think vbulletin suck when it comes to look and skins. All the skins are same, once u enter a vbulletin board with some different skin you can easily see that its vbulletin. But with phpbb or IPB its different.

                anyone else think the same?
                Not quite true. I rarely visit IPB forums but I never miss phpBB forums. vBulletin forums are getting recognized because of vBulletin professional accessibility & usability designs. phpBB, for example, doesn't have a navbar so you'll not recognize it until you scroll down to the footer. Another reason would be that vB customers are usually satisfied with the default design so they only made few tweaks here & there. Serious phpBB forums are usually hacked to death, wether on the front-end or the back-end.

                Originally posted by SaN-DeeP
                have you checked princetons forums ? or hyestersisters forums ?
                Or girlsgetgoing.com?
                You're spending millions of dollars on a website?!

                Comment

                • whitetigergrowl
                  Senior Member
                  • Jun 2004
                  • 644
                  • 5.1.x

                  #9
                  Something to think about.

                  Quite a few people look for free skins. Why? They don't want to pay money or CAN'T pay money and most likely also suck at skinning the site themselves. Alot of kids use Vbulletin. And while there are a handful of vb skinning sites that you can pay for skins, fact is, so many people buy those skins and do slight modifying, if any, that once again you can easily tell it's Vbulletin.

                  Alot of the free skins, unless basic, imo suck. Looks like 10th graders made them. And yes you can easily make your own, if you know what you are doing. But many don't. Thats why they look for skins in the first place.

                  Yeah there are some good looking forums out there using VB. But there are many more than look good but look the same. IMO yes...overall...the quality of the skins suck. And I know the next argument. "Well thats cause most people don't need to use them since its good out of the box." Thats pure BS. More people want the old VB skin look than the VB 3 bloated buttons look. You can replace the buttons and stuff and change the colors. But its still the same looking VB look.

                  It has nothing to do with VB being more popular, it has to do with a general lack of skinning communities that come out with 1 new skin every 3 months. And for such a popular forum software, it seems to have amongst the least skins of the major 3 or 4 forum software. Could it be because Vb relies too much on tables?! Well at least now I know what a rectangle and square look like in succession.

                  Comment

                  • MellowCool
                    New Member
                    • May 2006
                    • 1
                    • 3.0.5

                    #10
                    I just edited my default theme until it looked the way I wanted it to.
                    I don't want to go through changing all those mods again.

                    Comment

                    • SaintDog
                      Senior Member
                      • Nov 2001
                      • 906
                      • 3.5.x

                      #11
                      I can easily say, with confidence, that if you feel all vBulletin styles look exactly alike, perhaps you should move away from the free style releases here at vBulletin.com and vBulletin.org.

                      The styles release here and at vBulletin.org are free releases. Do you honestly expect the designers to spend countless hours on a design and completely convert it away from the standard vBulletin theme? While a new header, footer, gradient pattern and button set may be included, can you honestly expect the world from a free release?

                      Even with the topic of commercial vBulletin styles, you're paying for the athestics and visual appeal, not for a complete overhaul of the software as a whole. You can't honestly expect the world for $19.99-$39.99.

                      In the end, uniqueness and creativity flows through the administrator and ends with a designer, who has the responsibilty to bring it all to life. I know of quite a few communities that have developed styles that no longer specifically look like vBulletin as a whole. WDF.net, as mentioned above is one of them.

                      In the end, just as with anything, you honestly get what you pay for. If you expect a designer to spend 8 hours a day over a 5 day period (40 hours) and expect s/he to develop something 'just amazing and different' from what you normally see and come at them with a budget of $100-$300, don't feel bad when they either don't respond or laugh.

                      Too many people feel that $300 is a lot, but look at it this way. Do you feel that $300 is a lot of money when you've worked days to get it at a normal job? No? Then why should it be any different for a designer? Simply because they sit behind a computer and can grab a drink whenever they want? (not being rude, or targetting specifically, btw)

                      Designers have to feed themselves, their families and pay the bills too and that really can't be done on $300/week unless they plan on working 15-20 hour work days and 3-4 projects per week. By that time, they'd be exhausted.

                      Generally speaking, if you're looking for something unique, even $10-$15/hour won't buy you too much in terms of something with a WOW effect. If you're wanting unique, you'll have to pay for it in the end.

                      Categorizing the free & multi-sold commercial styles with something unique is as different as apples and oranges.

                      Comment

                      • TheComputerGuy
                        Senior Member
                        • Apr 2001
                        • 998

                        #12
                        I was thinking along the same lines lately as I began to rethink some of the design my forums have.

                        It's really good to see Saintdog around It's been quite a while my friend. Hope married life is treating you well

                        I reminiss to the days of Corey Wojen and how that got started. He had some revolutionary ideas when it came to vB skinning. I will be the first to say I am very sad to see all the crap that happened with him, but that was his choice.

                        I also feel there are lack of template edits. Back in the day, template edits were what made a forum different. Today its mostly just images and colors. WDF does a great job changing things up.

                        I have talked to some designers that are charging 400-600 that still make designs that are not quite up to par with what I like. Not to say their work isn't worth it, but I think it is still cookie cutter done.

                        If someone comes along with the ability to think outside the box and lead us to a new generation of forum design, they will make quite a bit of money.

                        Comment

                        • steven s
                          Senior Member
                          • Jul 2004
                          • 3722
                          • 3.8.x

                          #13
                          My forum is doing just fine with the default skin.
                          I have come across many forums that take forever to load due to the intense amount of graphics. I am also lucky that my site is unique in that it focuses on one model of a car. It's not like there are 20 sites devoted to and I need to keep them there with eye candy. I just keep the the board rolling along.
                          ...steven
                          www.318ti.org (vB3.8) | www.nccbmwcca.org (vB4.2)
                          bmwcca.org/forum | m135i.net
                          "I tried to clean this up but this thread is beyond redemption." - Steve Machol

                          Comment

                          • Joe Page
                            Senior Member
                            • Sep 2002
                            • 671

                            #14
                            I think phpBB/SMF/Invision Board styles look a lot similar than vBulletin.

                            Comment

                            • Cole2026
                              Senior Member
                              • Apr 2004
                              • 478
                              • 3.6.x

                              #15


                              And Filburt: Any chance you could PM me the code to make the WYSIWYG editor look like you have it?

                              Comment

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