[Debate] Pre-Made Skins

[TELSA !?]

I like pre-made skins, and used one before on my site before I acutally made my own. It's really quite convient for people who have no knowledge of coding or what to do for a color scheme.

However, it can be difficult to find a skin that fits the feeling of the genre of the role-play and it takes away the originality or what someone is looking for in a forum. So, there are pros and cons to skins as always.

[FOX LOVER ?! <3]

I actually love pre-made skins. But not for myself. For people that have no knowledge for the skins. I am very good with skins and codes, though I am still getting help finding a few. I have set up some pretty successful sites by putting up codes, and in most cases, skins.

[``Megara Spice]

I think there are many benefits to using a premade skin if you are unable to create your own that works colour wise; they are convenient, all colours blend properly, banners and backgrounds fit the skin, things like that. But personally I get more pleasure out of creating my own and knowing that my site was developed completely by me and that there is little chance of someone else having the exact same skin as me (as can happen when you use a premade skin). I have used premades before, in fact I use one on one of my sites, but overall I still prefer to create my own. When it comes to design and graphics boards, however, i do not believe they should use graphics and such from another site. if you have the talent to create skins/graphics, etc then you should be creating them yourself and not using other people's.

When it comes to reccommending them, however? Unless the person is a newbie to site creation and to graphics and design of forums I would not reccommend it, I, personally, have always created my own skins up until the one forum (the first and last i might add) that I used a premade on because it seemed to fit the site well.

[valderra99]

I keep hearing that premade skins are good for those people who have no knowledge of coding or don't know what colour scheme to use or have no knowledge of skins.

Well, when I opened my first forum (it was here at PB), I had no knowledge of any such things. I used the default skin until people recommened that I used my own colour scheme, add images etc. And I didn't do all these things overnight, but I did do it. And only this way I learned how to add different things separately to the forum to make it a whole. And I still have no knowledge of coding - know just enough to know where to add a code and which parts to change, if any.
So these excuses are no excuse.

I have nothing whatsoever against premade skins. I have seen some really great-looking ones, and I admire those people who put them together. And anybody who wants to use them, why not. But I don't want to hear the excuse that they use them because they haven't got a clue what colours to choose or what background to add, etc. Use them because you love that skin, fine. But that should be enough reason.

I myself wouldn't use a premade skin simply because you aren't suppose to change anything on the skin. I sometimes see a premade and think: 'Looks great, but I would want to change this and that'. But usually you aren't allowed. So a premade is no good for me.

And, as was said before, I have also seen the same skin over and over on different forums, which is like looking at a row of people all wearing the same uniform. No individualism.

[Weezze]

I’ve never used a pre-made as I like things to all be my own work (also the reason why I prefer to not have another admin), but I don’t condemn those that do use them. When I opened my first site I immediately created my own skin, without any knowledge of how but I did use other codes for added features.

I’ve got to say that I was very confused the other day because I went on two sites with the same skin and I kept getting them mixed up, but generally I find that as long as the site looks good and the skin is relevant then it’s perfectly fine.

[Former Member]

So, what are your thoughts on pre-made skins. Do you recommend them, or not.

A lot of the time, people don't have the time or the ability to make their own skins. I personally have done both, and sometimes I will use the pre-made, but make minor changes to it to make it fit the board, like banners and backgrounds I will change sometimes, and I can't really do the side-bar graphics either, so If a person cannot create their own I find that using a pre-made skin is very helpful.

Also, should design and graphics boards use a pre-made skin from another forum?

I wouldn't expect a design and graphics forum to need a pre-made skin because those are usually the sites where the people know a lot more about the coding, and graphics and would have the ability to design one themselves.

[Ara (Crow)]

In my option pre-made skins can be a very good thing to have. If your not very talented with colors blending together smoothly it's a good thing to use. Of course, you have to play it smart. Don't use a pre-made skin that is very overused. Everyone is going to easily reconize it. If your going to use a pre-made skin try and use one that isn't used as often.

NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, use pre-made graphics. It looks absolutely terrible. Make your own. I beg of you. Always make your own graphics. If your untalented with graphics it is possible to have someone from a graphic making site do it for you. Whatever you ahve to do, just don't use premade graphics.

[=RENEE says MIAOW=]

i agree with you . i've never used pre-made skins before, but i think they are helpful to people who aren't code-savvy ahah ^__^
just , in my opinion, i've seen at least three sites with one specific skin and it really does take away from originality..

[SearaQuoos]

Perhaps on a site with incredibly difficult coding like IF I could see using pre-mades as a good thing. They make their coding so hard to understand, that a beginner can't make something good out of it. However, on ProBoards we have an incredible system that lets even people who don't really understand coding to make a skin. It won't always be a great skin, but it will be a skin. When I first made my site, my skin was horrible - but after time and practice, I've gotten better and better. I would not have gotten that experience had I used a premade.

I, personally, would join a site with a bad skin before I joined a site with a premade. A premade skin just shows me that the Admin doesn't care enough to put that level of work in, or that they just don't have that level of creativity. And since I only join RP communities, they need to have creativity. Premades just allow people to be lazy and boring with their skins. At least have someone make a skin specifically for your site. That way at least I won't see your skin on other sites, and I can imagine that because the skin was made with your specifications you put some effort into the creations.

I see a site that has a premade (especially one I've seen before) and a site with a bad skin that had effort put into it that have the same quality of roleplay and evoke the same interest level in me - I will close the tab of the premade without looking further.

[mikek302]

I love premade skins, though only because I have no real graphical talents myself, skins or otherwise. When I join a site though, I love to see a skin that's been made by the people running it with a bit or originality. Usually it's nice to fit in some character from whatever the board is focused on into the skin, or just something to make it stand out.

With that being said, when a skin is really badly designed or just looks lackluster, I'll probably not join the site, although I think that's cause usually if someone has put no effort into the skin then the same can probably be said for the site in general. I use pre-made skins on any of my own sites cause I much prefer a skin that looks nice and is maybe used by a few other people rather than an original skin that is just bad.

[cosmich]

I am horribly "untalented" when it comes to graphics and skins. I created my forum initially using the PB defaults, and when I started to add things I got a slew of PM's and emails about the layout becoming "too complex."

It turns out some people were on dial-up. A lot of codes and customized graphics slow that down. Others were using the Iphones and Androids and whatnot. All of that via the digital network added no value to them

It was at that point that I realized that people come to the board for the content and community, not for how it looks. For example I have 1 thread that gets an average of 1000 pageviews between 9am and 4pm every day. Those on that thread want it loading FAST.

So I have some basic codes, a logo (still being worked), and that's about it. I always test my site with dial-up, to be sure things are working with decent speed. And we work hard as Mods to fix large pictures posted during the day to keep things moving.

[purgatory2]

I'd like to use a pre-made layout, but I don't know of any where they have those.
Until I learn to do things on my own, but right now, I could really use a pre-made.
Anyone know any links?
I'm not so good with HTML ~_~; (Sadly) I know a little, but not alot.

[shadowblast]

I think that everyone starts some where and then they begin to experiment with images, colours and such like. Im now a freelance designer and I got into design by making my own Proboards skins. But once you have some knowledge of throwing codes together, you can make skins so very simplistically. These are normally premades.

Totaly customised skins are ones you actually have a full image of in Photoshop and cut up into the relevant images to code. These are the sites which have amazing skins. Premades are fine upto a point. Custom mades, - now they are the bees knees

[notaclevername]

I think premade skins can be very useful, like I'm sure everyone here has said a million times, to those who don't know how to make good layouts or just don't have the time.

The only con is that you can loose originality, but if you can add your own touches to the skin, then that shouldn't really be a problem anyways.

[Katana]

I thought about it a bit more...

I removed the pre-made skin I got from a website, and decided to make my own.


It worked out surprisingly...