[Debate] Pre-Made Skins

I would reccomend a premade to a forum administrator who's new to forums, especially seeing on how (no offense because this even applied to me ) awful the colours and design can be on your first forum. But once you'e had a forum for so long, I belive you should atleast attempt to replace the premade skin with a custom one. Veterains I personally belive shouldn't use them. Unless they are their own

But I certainly belive the a graphic forum of all things should use it's own graphics, because it's false advertising really. The design of a graphic's forum is supposed to give a guest an impression of the quality of designer's at the forum, not how good they are at instlling templates

Yes, pre-made skins are easy to use if you know nothing of putting together one of your own. However, I like the personal touch of a regular made skin instead of the pre-made ones. Most of the pre-mades I've seen aren't to my liking, but that's just me. Newer admins (as said many times) probobly would like a pre-made skin just so it's easier to run the site.. not having to worry about color codes and designing.

However, to me, unless I find the right one, which could take days, even weeks, it's pointless. I enjoy spending time working on the colors and graphics, even if I have to ask other people for help.

So, overall, I do like pre-mades for newbies, but for more advanced Proboards users, add your own touch to it.
<3

I think that for some, especially those just starting out, that premade skins can be helpful to a degree....but that as soon as possible, one should begin to branch out, and create your own skins. I have in the past used premade skins, to help me see just what I need to do, and to figure out how to best get colours and graphics to coordinate. Don't recommend using them as the basis of your forum, as others have said, you lose the originality and uniqueness of your forum, and sometimes, I have to look at some and go, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? The colours simply don't match the theme of the board. (For instance, a Car Racing forum, that may use dolphins for a background...WHY?)

Now, I have made my own "skins", almost all are simply using monochromatic colour schemes, such as I have one on a board, that is "shades of blues".....using of course, blues for the theme. I have not added a lot of graphics to mine, as I have a number of members on dial up and it makes the pages load far too slow for them with a lot of graphics. I have updated New Posts/No new Posts, and they don't mind that, but when I added backgrounds, and all that, many of them were having too much difficulty in getting the pages to load in a timely manner. I have seen many who make skins for their forums, and just number them, and you have to go through all to find out what the colours are....I make a point of making sure that somehow they will know, such as Shades of Blue, Shades of Brown, etc...(You get the idea). There are a lot of sites out there that have the colour charts, and I have found two that allow you to see complimentary, or monochromatic colour schemes right there, to help you put together your own skins, and know that it will look good.

An important thing to remember when making skins, is not so much what colours you may like, but what colours can be read on the colours you choose. A bright yellow on a white background or on a light pink background is almost impossible to read, so test out your scheme, before applying it to the boards, and make sure that it is readable. If you really want the colours, make a point of creating other skins for the others, that are maybe not your cup of tea, so that your members can actually read what is being written. Something also to consider, and I've run into the last few weeks, is figuring out if you may have someone who is colour blind, and what do the colours you choose for your board look like to them. There are different types of colour blindness, and they see the colours differently than most. Try to use colours that won't be assaulting to them, and that can still be readable. Perhaps find out what type of colour blindness they may have and create a skin for them, that allows them to read the forum without strain.

Just some things to consider, whether you make your own skins or you use premade ones.

Well. For noobs like me with no graphic intellect, pre-made skins are ok, though i still prefer to jack around and make my own, even if it totally sucks. Most of the good Pre-mades are taken thousands of times over, so for someone to invest the extra time to make their own, it shows that the forum is tailored from an individual person, which in a way, makes it feel a bit more homely. It gives off the image that you can talk to real people, instead of a bunch of copies of other peoples sites.

I use a premade skin because I haven't got a clue about codes, however I did customize the buttons and smileys and created my own banner/logo/header. i'm new to the forum and hope to pick up some tricks to improve the look, traffic, member, posts, etc. etc. etc.