Post by Kami on Apr 3, 2014 9:01:11 GMT -8
so you need a theme!
Finding the right theme for your forum can be really difficult; even with the growing premade theme library, the right theme -- the one that makes you nod wisely and say 'aha!' -- can be as elusive as ... something that's elusive. Thankfully, ProBoards Support has a place for you to request a theme all unique to you, filled by super helpful volunteers. But it's also hard to put into words just what you're looking for, especially if you want to give volunteers some creative leeway, and a lot of people are having a hard time getting their requests filled due to a lack of information or way, way too much. Here are a few tips and guidelines to help you and potential request fillers make your ideas a reality.• Figuring out what you want:
This is the hardest step. Many people have a hard time figuring exactly what sort of features and effects they need or want on their forum. Here are some important things to remember before you post:
- What is your demographic? — Are there a lot of people who need larger fonts? Do you have a lot of people with slow internet connections? Are you looking at casual internet / forum users, or people who are a bit more formatting-savvy? Are you a general chat forum, or a forum with a specialised function (like a roleplaying forum)? Make sure to take your users into consideration first when thinking about what your forum will need.
- What features do you need? — Will you be using affiliates? Do you need to display information on your home page? Do you want to add currency or games? Before requesting, think about what sort of things you want to offer your members. Have a look at the Plugin Library for ideas! Anything that will add to your forum (such as side tables or currency) will need to be taken into consideration by volunteers.
- Do you need to take anything away? — If you need anything removed from or added to the forum's default appearance that you haven't found in the Plugin Library, you may need to have the layout template (the actual HTML of your forum) edited. This is also something that a volunteer would need to take into consideration.
- What aesthetics do you need? — How do you want your banner to look? Are there any images you want included? What colours do you need? You don't need to know a specific hex colour, but a general colour scheme would be super helpful. It's also helpful if you describe whether or not you want bold colours or muted colours or pastel colours. Note: This is where you can leave more up to your volunteer; if you have a general idea on colour and what sort of images you need,you can keep this part open.
• Posting your request:
The most common two mistakes I see when people post requests are too much and too little information. If you've followed the bullet points above, then all you need to do is give that information in a way that's clear and easy for volunteers to understand.
- Avoiding giving too little information — Even though the intentions are good, telling volunteers that they can do whatever they'd like with your theme is extremely unhelpful. Your volunteer is not invested in your site, so they won't be able to decide what would be beneficial to it. Some guidelines are infinitely better than none at all -- after all, you're not paying people for their time, so it's best to avoid wasting any.
- Avoiding giving too much information — On the flip side, you don't want to overload volunteers with a long list of incredibly specific and nuanced details! Long requests will be looked over as being too complicated.
- Hitting that happy medium — Give volunteers a little bit of information about your site's subject matter — just a sentence or two — and let them know what you want to accomplish with the new layout in simple terms (eg: "a clean, modern look" or a "dark and gritty feel"). Then let them know the essentials: any specific needs regarding font size or type, colour, images, and required plugins in a concise manner (list form might help). If there's not enough information after this, your volunteer will ask for clarification.
An example of a request follows:URL: mysitehere.proboards.com
I'm looking for a theme for my general chat forum! I really would like something very simple and clean, using whites and greys. My forum uses the shout box a lot, and I'd like the chatbox to be in the peekaboo side table. I would also like a colour-change hover effect on my links, going from grey to black. I'd like the width of the site to be 800px wide. I don't want any borders to be visible.
For my banner, I need it to say "My Site Here" in a professional font, like sample or sample with the image of a happy face in the middle of the banner and slightly faded.
I also want to get rid of the Topics | Post | Views | Last Post text row, and have the avatars to be 200px by 300px instead of the default size.
For those folks who are more visually inclined, a quick drawing (even in paint) or if you're comfortable with it, a mockup in a graphics program like GIMP or Photoshop could also go a long way in helping a theme maker get the look you're going for.
So that's it! Hopefully this helps with people getting their requests filled.
And one last thing:
Be polite and kind to, and have patience with the volunteers!
They are doing this as a favour to you, for free, and there's nothing more disheartening about volunteering for these things than requesters treating you poorly.
» Update 06/29/2016: About Images & Copyrighted Material
It is with increasing frequency that I notice requests that ask creators to utilise the intellectual property and/or licensed trademarks of other entities. This is just a reminder that in accordance with Section 20 of the ProBoards Terms of Service, we as users of ProBoards software agree to respect the intellectual property and copyrights of others. The TOS goes into further detail about the parameters of this agreement, so if you haven't checked it out yet (shh, I won't tell), it would be a good time to do so!
But what about fansites and roleplay forums?
Short answer: Fansites and roleplay forums should still be able to request a theme no problem!
Longer answer: I know the concern here is that many fansites and roleplay forums are based on existing franchises and series. As an avid fan of various things, I completely understand the concern regarding this so I wanted to provide some general information and links for further reading. Please note that these do not constitute legal advice, as I am not a lawyer.
PROTIP: You can filter Google image results by their copyright licenses!
It is with increasing frequency that I notice requests that ask creators to utilise the intellectual property and/or licensed trademarks of other entities. This is just a reminder that in accordance with Section 20 of the ProBoards Terms of Service, we as users of ProBoards software agree to respect the intellectual property and copyrights of others. The TOS goes into further detail about the parameters of this agreement, so if you haven't checked it out yet (shh, I won't tell), it would be a good time to do so!
But what about fansites and roleplay forums?
Short answer: Fansites and roleplay forums should still be able to request a theme no problem!
Longer answer: I know the concern here is that many fansites and roleplay forums are based on existing franchises and series. As an avid fan of various things, I completely understand the concern regarding this so I wanted to provide some general information and links for further reading. Please note that these do not constitute legal advice, as I am not a lawyer.
1. Most big-name companies & franchises have information available on the internet dealing with acceptable fan-use of their intellectual property. For example, if you wanted to create a World of Warcraft forum, Blizzard Inc. has a FAQ about acceptable fan use of their content.
Google can be a really big help for finding this information, so if you search for the franchise / series you wanted to make a forum of with keywords like 'copyright', you should be able to find similar pages. I found the above Blizzard FAQ by typing in "Blizzard legal" into Google, for instance.1.1 - Small-time artists still need their copyrights respected too. If you want to use a small-time artist's work, try asking! They might just say yes! (But if they say no, obviously you need to respect that).2. Rule of thumb: If in doubt, don't use it! If you search for public domain images, you will be able to find images to use that are free and have no copyright claims to deal with!
3. Creative Commons, derivative works, and fair use can still be used in certain instances, depending on the subject manner and what you intend to produce. Here are some links for further reading about these topics:
• Creative commons licenses
• Derivative work, US Copyright Office
• Derivative Work, Wikipedia[
• Fair use, US Copyright Office
• Fair use, Wikipedia
PROTIP: You can filter Google image results by their copyright licenses!
If you enter your search term in google and tab over to the images options, clicking "Search Tools" will show you the dropdown menu for "Usage rights". You can then filter images based on if they are labeled for reuse, reuse with modification (ie: you edit the image rather than just use it as-is), labeled for noncommercial (ie: you make no money from it) reuse with modification, or noncommerical reuse.
Hope this update helps folks decide on what images to use for their theme requests!
Stickied!
