17 replies to this topic

[The Simpleton]

I think every big forum gets a thread like this every two weeks or so I'm talking about changing the theme of T17 forums. It's very decent but most members would also say it's dull I've seen many members suggesting that the theme should be changed but the topic got diverted due to larger, more important things. But I feel it's time that we started thinking about this seriously. I've been here for a short while (2 months) so I don't know whether or not this theme has been used from the beginning, but it definitely needs to be changed!

Variety is the spice of life and everyone looks forward to seeing some change in everything they do, otherwise the job becomes boring after a while. Similarly, the theme may be indirectly influencing the mood of the members - they might not be motivated enough to post day-after-day seeing the same old theme. If there was a brighter theme then they may be encouraged to post more.

Well that's just my own, useless opinion. If you feel that we need to get a new theme, then please vote in the poll. Thanks for that

[mahesh2k]

This theme is nice. earlier blue theme was nice as well. all i want to say here is whatever you choose please don't choose those dark background themes for forums. it really turns off. especially to professional and regular forums. and dark background themes are not at all suitable to trap17 theme. And i can't believe i enjoyed this gray theme.Coming back to topic, i guess trap17 is redesigned with this theme few months ago. not sure but i guess jan-feb to be precise. So my vote is No. No need of new theme as of yet.

After November, i think trap17 admins will redesign it (just a guess).

[The Simpleton]

there was a blue theme before? It sounds good as you said, dark themes won't suit our forums, but somehow gray seems to wear off the enthusiasm in here. that's why I suggested that we change the theme. If there is a redesign scheduled soon that would be really good.

[Nameless_]

mahesh2k, on Aug 30 2009, 07:42 PM, said:

This theme is nice. earlier blue theme was nice as well. all i want to say here is whatever you choose please don't choose those dark background themes for forums. it really turns off. especially to professional and regular forums. and dark background themes are not at all suitable to trap17 theme. And i can't believe i enjoyed this gray theme.Coming back to topic, i guess trap17 is redesigned with this theme few months ago. not sure but i guess jan-feb to be precise. So my vote is No. No need of new theme as of yet.

After November, i think trap17 admins will redesign it (just a guess).

Sorry, I have to say that I actually agree with The Simpleton though... I really don't like this site's design template and I think that lots of work can go into it. For one, it doesn't really look that good and attractive for new members... I sometimes wonder why I joined this forum in the first place. If it wasn't for the members or anything I really wouldn't have bothered.

Also, as a hosting site, I think that Trap17's main page looks very bad too... I thought that hosting sites were meant to have a good looking main page? It's meant to host sites, remember, and the main page looks like it's designed by a not-professional person, no offence to Trap17 or anything (just giving out my opinion). If Trap17 realy wants to have actual customers badly, I suggest them to really change their outlook of Trap17...

And I really don't think that pleading out to it's members for a template design will really help at all because most of us aren't that good a scripting and people that are will have better things to do anyway... just my point of view.

I agree with The Simpleton in creating a new website design for Trap17. While it may be historical and stuff like that and the administrators and /or moderators might think fondly of this design, I think that it will do better with a more attractive layout that looks more modern and more pro that it is now... ...

[The Simpleton]

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Sorry, I have to say that I actually agree with The Simpleton though... I really don't like this site's design template and I think that lots of work can go into it. For one, it doesn't really look that good and attractive for new members... I sometimes wonder why I joined this forum in the first place. If it wasn't for the members or anything I really wouldn't have bothered.

Also, as a hosting site, I think that Trap17's main page looks very bad too... I thought that hosting sites were meant to have a good looking main page? It's meant to host sites, remember, and the main page looks like it's designed by a not-professional person, no offence to Trap17 or anything (just giving out my opinion). If Trap17 realy wants to have actual customers badly, I suggest them to really change their outlook of Trap17...

And I really don't think that pleading out to it's members for a template design will really help at all because most of us aren't that good a scripting and people that are will have better things to do anyway... just my point of view.

I agree with The Simpleton in creating a new website design for Trap17. While it may be historical and stuff like that and the administrators and /or moderators might think fondly of this design, I think that it will do better with a more attractive layout that looks more modern and more pro that it is now... ...

I visited the trap17.com page two months ago but I didn't observe it that much. Now I visited it and it seems to be outdated, with mention of hosting credits, even though we are using the myCENT system now.

But one thing we need to remember before complaining about these things is that the trap17 staff have a very challenging job that needs to be done without errors. They have a lot of jobs pending and thus things like these just sit on the waiting list for a long time. So it's not right to blame them that much. We just have to be patient...

[Nameless_]

Sorry, I was just voicing my opinion... but I've been here for about one month, and don't you think that that's enough to change the words "hosting credits" to "myCENTS hosting method"???

I think it is... but oh well, I'm sure that Opaque and BuffaloHELP DO have a lot of things to do in their lives... I'm not surprised... I myself have a lot to do too, and I think that it's a miracle for them to be able to keep everything up and running and read our ungrateful comments on this forum (or more like MY ungrateful comments on this forum) and change the things that we want changed...

Anyway, just thought that I would like to give my thanks to all you staff members, moderators inclusive in my thanks and keep the great work up and running!!!

[TheDisturbedOne]

I don't mind this theme, in fact I like it better than the blue theme, but I wouldn't mind a redesign. The only problem is that there are so many customizations to this current theme, that it would probably take the admins some time to make a new theme. And I agree, please no dark theme!

[gisellebebegirl]

i like the theme, i little morecolor and silvers and flashy things wouldnt hurt though..
and fixing some of the glitches too.. for example if you click on OPEN DISCUSSION below the TRAP17 icon and above your name, you get sent back to TRAP17.COM rather than the forums.. which is kinda annoying, but we learn to live with right??

i in my opinion find the way the posts are displayed (when you click to open the post along with its replys) is neverneding and boring, its too wide for my resolution, maybe having an option where you can change the width of that, would be nice)

i dont know i really dont mind the layout as it is right now, trap has had worse ;P

[Saint_Michael]

Let me assume that all of the people who posted in this topic have a nice fast broadband connection, and then I will assume that everyone in this topic can download the website in a couple of seconds. On that note you forgot about the other members who are still on dial-up and thus the forum takes even longer for them to download and if you notice there are not to many images being used in this forum. Thus this forum will download just a bit faster for those on dial-up, but of course now you have thousands of members sig blocks loaded with lots of stuff including larger images that will some time to load and thus slow down the download process even more. So on that note if you have a theme in mind that is not only fast and eye pleasing and of course doesn't take OpaQue long to "recode" it to set the MyCent system in place then by all means suggest or design them. If memory serves me correct most good themes are not free and the free ones are pretty crappy and so with all this coding and design talent it shouldn't be to difficult to think up a design

As for the Mycent/Hosting Credit topics, if you find them report the topics to the mods and we will do our thing with them.

[Tramposch]

Saint_Michael, on Aug 30 2009, 01:58 PM, said:

Let me assume that all of the people who posted in this topic have a nice fast broadband connection, and then I will assume that everyone in this topic can download the website in a couple of seconds. On that note you forgot about the other members who are still on dial-up and thus the forum takes even longer for them to download and if you notice there are not to many images being used in this forum. Thus this forum will download just a bit faster for those on dial-up, but of course now you have thousands of members sig blocks loaded with lots of stuff including larger images that will some time to load and thus slow down the download process even more. So on that note if you have a theme in mind that is not only fast and eye pleasing and of course doesn't take OpaQue long to "recode" it to set the MyCent system in place then by all means suggest or design them. If memory serves me correct most good themes are not free and the free ones are pretty crappy and so with all this coding and design talent it shouldn't be to difficult to think up a design

As for the Mycent/Hosting Credit topics, if you find them report the topics to the mods and we will do our thing with them.

I agree with This dude.

and I also like the current theme, simple, proffessional, et cetera. I think it does a very good job at being simple, attractive, proffessional and fast to load.

As for the main site, there is a design topic for that, for those who are complaining about it.

I Voted no, I think the theme should stay the same.

[mahesh2k]

I agree with SM on point of convenience for dialup users. Even i use mobile to access forums sometimes and themes like this are fast loading on mobile browser. so i guess it is equally fast on dialup as well. i guess only problem with is of color scheme. then i think whitish background with multiple color schemes change during 6 month or so could be a good way to keep forums updated. earlier theme used to display recent replies and topics in two columns at the bottom. that feature we're definitely missing. though we're getting used to this stripped down version of forum. and a giesse mentioned earlier a link is broken and it points to front page of forum instead of inside it with active topics. so that needs to be fixed. other than that, my opinion earlier remains same.

[livepcportal]

Although I am new to Trap17 Forum and do not know much about the earlier theme but still I think we don't need new theme. Current theme is good enough to keep the forum look descent for another year and personally speaking I also like this theme not only because it looks descent but also because it loads pretty much fast whenever I open the forum in my mobile.
However, I don't mind if the current theme is changed to a new one, but like this theme, new one should also load up fast so that I can still open this forum in my mobile.
Now what I think should change immediately is the current trap17 main website design. It looks very old and confusing. I have seen the websites of other free web host such as hosthelpers, 110mb, 000webhost which are good enough to attract more users. So in my opinion it is not the trap17 forum theme which should change, it is trap17 main website which needs to be entirely redesigned.

[The Simpleton]

Quote

Let me assume that all of the people who posted in this topic have a nice fast broadband connection, and then I will assume that everyone in this topic can download the website in a couple of seconds. On that note you forgot about the other members who are still on dial-up and thus the forum takes even longer for them to download and if you notice there are not to many images being used in this forum. Thus this forum will download just a bit faster for those on dial-up, but of course now you have thousands of members sig blocks loaded with lots of stuff including larger images that will some time to load and thus slow down the download process even more. So on that note if you have a theme in mind that is not only fast and eye pleasing and of course doesn't take OpaQue long to "recode" it to set the MyCent system in place then by all means suggest or design them. If memory serves me correct most good themes are not free and the free ones are pretty crappy and so with all this coding and design talent it shouldn't be to difficult to think up a design

As for the Mycent/Hosting Credit topics, if you find them report the topics to the mods and we will do our thing with them.

That's a good point. I don't have a very fast connection but the forum manages to open up in around 10 seconds. The sheer size of the site is what makes it difficult to load.

I think most of you misunderstood me when I said a change is in need. I'm not asking for a bright theme with jaw-dropping graphics and all It's just that gray is a bit dull on the eye and whenever people in a bad/tired mood come to post, the grayness puts them off. The same theme with a different colourset would be very nice

[galexcd]

I just wanted to make a quick point:
Take a look at Asta Host. They got a theme redesign about the same time Trap17 did. At first look their theme might look really pretty, and you might want something like that for this forum. But if you spend some time there reading the topics and posting, the theme begins to look too busy; it's a breath of fresh air to come back to Trap17 and view its nice clean look. Flashy themes may first make you think "oooh pretty", but when it comes down to it, functionality and readability are the most important parts of a theme. Also, if you think this theme is boring, take a look at what trap17 used to look like using the wayback machine.

[mahesh2k]

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At first look their theme might look really pretty, and you might want something like that for this forum. But if you spend some time there reading the topics and posting, the theme begins to look too busy; it's a breath of fresh air to come back to Trap17 and view its nice clean look.

Completely agree. I'll choose current trap17's theme over astahost's. Though sometimes gray/dark backgrounds do make newbies uncomfortable. especially when they're new to forums. and yeah, those who were never seen old blue theme of trap17. take a look at it via wayback machine. earlier theme was busy looking but quite good to eyes. I spent lot of my time on trap17, when that theme was activated,earlier before that i have no idea which theme was there. let me check wayback machine now. :-P

[Spurious]

Quote

Take a look at Asta Host. They got a theme redesign about the same time Trap17 did. At first look their theme might look really pretty, and you might want something like that for this forum. But if you spend some time there reading the topics and posting, the theme begins to look too busy; it's a breath of fresh air to come back to Trap17 and view its nice clean look. Flashy themes may first make you think "oooh pretty", but when it comes down to it, functionality and readability are the most important parts of a theme. Also, if you think this theme is boring, take a look at what trap17 used to look like using the wayback machine.

I actually prefer the default Invision Power Board themes. They are quick, fast and secure.
I was actually a member of T17 in those days. God knows where my account has gone must of been lost in time and space

Edited by Spurious, 05 September 2009 - 12:25 AM.

[The Simpleton]

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I actually prefer the default Invision Power Board themes. They are quick, fast and secure.
I was actually a member of T17 in those days. God knows where my account has gone must of been lost in time and space tongue.gif

The new IPB V3 default theme is pretty good actually. We're currently using V2, right? The new version has improved a lot on the visual front and yet looks professional enough. But if I'm not wrong it costs a lot to upgrade?

[Nameless_]

galexcd, on Sep 1 2009, 03:07 PM, said:

I just wanted to make a quick point:
Take a look at Asta Host. They got a theme redesign about the same time Trap17 did. At first look their theme might look really pretty, and you might want something like that for this forum. But if you spend some time there reading the topics and posting, the theme begins to look too busy; it's a breath of fresh air to come back to Trap17 and view its nice clean look. Flashy themes may first make you think "oooh pretty", but when it comes down to it, functionality and readability are the most important parts of a theme. Also, if you think this theme is boring, take a look at what trap17 used to look like using the wayback machine.

Oh... that is just horrible... (what Trap17 used to look like, that is. Not the theme redesign. Now I know why half of the, I mean, ALL of the old memebrs are reluctant in changing the theme of Trap17... in case it looks worse than before.

I must say though, the Trap17 theme CAN be better. It does have space (a lot of space too) for refinements, but I understand if you want Trap17 to stay the way it is now... I don't think and feel like it is my place to put a comment in this discussion anymore. It's up to the oldies, after all!!!