Should I Customize My ProBoard?

[midfielder]

I am using my boards in a teaching environment.

How can I allow only the people I want too.... ie... my students to get access to the forum...

Essentially I want to have students register... I would approve their registeration ... after registeration they could log on to the forum...

[🎶Sossity🎶]

Sept 19, 2011 23:31:02 GMT -8 midfielder said:

I am using my boards in a teaching environment.

How can I allow only the people I want too.... ie... my students to get access to the forum...

Essentially I want to have students register... I would approve their registeration ... after registeration they could log on to the forum...

Hi

Please post this on the support board. Incude your board's url in the post.

Thanks

[midfielder]

Sept 20, 2011 8:54:06 GMT -8 🎶Sossity🎶 said:

Sept 19, 2011 23:31:02 GMT -8 midfielder said:

I am using my boards in a teaching environment.

How can I allow only the people I want too.... ie... my students to get access to the forum...

Essentially I want to have students register... I would approve their registeration ... after registeration they could log on to the forum...

Hi

Please post this on the support board. Incude your board's url in the post.

Thanks

Thanks

[Former Member]

Jun 4, 2006 10:42:47 GMT -8 Raptor said:

David, your link is broken...


The trick for a forum is to make it comfortable and inviting for members. A garish color scheme that leaves the forum burned into the user's eyes isn't going to make the person want to return much, even if the member base is good. I agree the images should match the forum, and the codes should be functional and have a purpose. But the most important visual aspect to a forum is the colors.

I agree,I see so many board using black for a default skin,the font is hard to read and they do not have the color complimentary on top of that. Black defaults keep me away.

[bookgrubz]

No matter what I do, when I set one of my created skins as defalt, the colors stay the same. Help?

[🎶Sossity🎶]

Jan 17, 2012 16:01:46 GMT -8 bookgrubz said:

No matter what I do, when I set one of my created skins as defalt, the colors stay the same. Help?

Hi

Please post this on the support board. Include your board's url in the post.

Thanks

[Cuethelaugh]

I honestly feel that with roleplay forums in particular people get FAR too carried away with customizing their forums and making it look pretty.

More often than not it becomes too much for anyone to handle/take in and BEYOND that the roleplay suffers are all but vanishes. I've seen this happen on quite a few sites (that I am not a member of but check out once in a while more so out of necessity).

If a board was started for roleplay purposes the focus should be on how to continue the roleplay and keep it active or else your site just becomes a wall decoration and people have those in real life! They're called paintings. DUH GUYS.

[Former Member]

It depends on the purpose, really. If you just want a place that allows a close group of real life friends to get together and post stuff, I don't think you really need to customise much. The default theme is functional, after all. If you want to create a place that attracts users from all over the world, you need to put in more effort and customise the appearance of your forum.

Think of it like this: there must be hundreds/thousands of forums out there that use the default theme. If you opt to stick with it, you're just limiting yourself and limiting your potential for creativity and uniqueness. There's also something else to consider, though: the appearance has to be functional as well as attractive. You could have the prettiest theme in the world but if it isn't easy to navigate and find things, people absolutely will leave.

I feel like it's a hard balance to strike, because I often want to just go crazy and make the coolest looking things I can possibly make, totally disregarding functionality and usability. It's easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of 'I'm gonna make the best looking thing ever!' without stopping to think about whether or not it is easy to use.

Adding extra code such as JavaScript is just another way to make your forum a little bit more special and unique. As long as you know what you're doing, it's pretty much impossible to colossally mess up and break your forum, but there are so many things you can do with coding that it's almost magical.

Really, though, I'd encourage everybody to customise their forum because it might help you discover that you really enjoy thep rocess. That could lead to any number of things, such as learning JavaScript or jQuery because you want to make your forum just that little bit better than it already is.

[Mandoli]

Oct 9, 2014 10:38:56 GMT -8 Kurisu said:

You could have the prettiest theme in the world but if it isn't easy to navigate and find things, people absolutely will leave.

When I merged forums with someone, people complained about not knowing where to find things. I group things together for a purpose. I felt annoyed that people "couldn't find" boards and threads. (I think it was just ignorance on their part, due to the fact that they were on a board that was copied section for section from a prior board. Then they all made their own board, and I haven't heard from them since.) Hurt my feelings to hear that.

I try to do the following: Change the skin, add a banner, and add a few plugins to make my board look cleaner. I don't toy with the font settings and add unnecessary plugins that have nothing to do with my board. Who would want to participate in a scavenger hunt on a themed board like mine? I've been chewed out because I add plugins that are seen on every skin. If I could have a skin to test all of the things I want to use... I'd be better off that way.

But absolutely customize your forum. I don't want to suggest that you just pop up a premade skin. Even if you change the colors to something that catches the attention of the general public, you've done yourself a good thing.

[Former Member]

"Function over design"

What that means is can a user figure out how to "navigate" your forum easily.

Can he/she figure out how to get from different parts of your forum(in less than 2/3 clicks)
User experience(UX) should be the first thing any forum owner wishing to change things around, needs to understand.

Is the font size Ok to certain people(visually impaired, people of the older persuasion, mobile users)
Does the background and text color have enough contrast.
Are the links distinguishable from other text on the forum.
Am I informing users an action has taken place(simple animation), or do they wait for something to happen blindly
Using google analytics to find out if users are using mobile or IE6? Does my forum display OK for those users?

Changing colors and a logo will add a whole lot to your forum but only If combined with(UX + UI)

[Mandoli]

Jan 10, 2017 14:17:14 GMT -8 @synthtec said:

Is the font size Ok to certain people(visually impaired, people of the older persuasion, mobile users)

The problem with making the font bigger (at least on my forum) is that people are going to complain. Every time I change something, there's usually one or two people who are saying something to the tune of "change it back".

[Mixed]

I hope no one minds my adding two cents to this. I believe it is necessary to customize your forum in order to, firstly, show that you have put an effort into building up the community and, secondly, to be sure your forum is unique enough to be remembered so that a visitor might think to return. However, an admin needs to be careful not to customize so much so that the forum is confusing and no longer navigable. But this is important and has been expressed a few times in this thread already.

There is also a manner of compromise. Customize the forum to your tastes. At the same time, you need to consider the public eye. Is it appealing to the target demographic basically? At least that's how I like to think of the impression my forum makes and how much customization it needs.

Considering a more specific group of visitors, I thought this was partly why multiple themes can be available on a forum.

Feb 22, 2017 8:54:38 GMT -8 Mandoli said:

Jan 10, 2017 14:17:14 GMT -8 @synthtec said:

Is the font size Ok to certain people(visually impaired, people of the older persuasion, mobile users)

The problem with making the font bigger (at least on my forum) is that people are going to complain. Every time I change something, there's usually one or two people who are saying something to the tune of "change it back".

See, to be sure everyone can use a theme (those who need larger fonts and those who prefer smaller fonts), I've started the habit of making duplicates of popular themes. With this duplicate, I'll alter the font size so more can enjoy it. In this way, change can be made but those who preferred it the original way can hold onto it. Would that work to keep the peace?

[Mandoli]

Mar 22, 2017 14:57:13 GMT -8 Mixed said:

See, to be sure everyone can use a theme (those who need larger fonts and those who prefer smaller fonts), I've started the habit of making duplicates of popular themes. With this duplicate, I'll alter the font size so more can enjoy it. In this way, change can be made but those who preferred it the original way can hold onto it. Would that work to keep the peace?

I kind of wish plugins could be tested on one skin before it's up on the forum in general. You wouldn't believe how many people have stated their displeasure in my direction.

With my forum, I like to keep things slightly uniform. I don't want to change things up for the sake of changing things up. So I don't usually make a new skin for a font change. If someone requests it, then I'll do it. But it's not going to be my doing just because I'm itching to do it.

[Kami]

If you click edit on the manage plugin list you can edit which skin uses it (: