New Forum Themes/Styles Feedback

[racketboy]

I wanted to create a separate thread to discuss some potential forum themes/styles that we could customize for alternate/new default themes with the full header added.

Here's a couple I'm thinking about -- let me know what you think of them and what factors play into your decision.
NOTE: Don't choose based on colors as both have color options and we can customize

Milk:
Info: https://themeforest.net/item/milk-multi ... e/16119149
Live Previews (select 3.3): http://preview.themeforest.net/item/mil ... 1714507649

BBOTS:
Info: https://themeforest.net/item/bboots-htm ... me/6043477
Live Preview: https://preview.themeforest.net/item/bb ... 1714507649

OR, just prefer the current Dark Prosilver Theme
(in this case, mention what's superior on this theme)

If you can, try to keep things concise in the event I need to easily tally up feedback from a handful of people.

Maybe start your comment with
Recommended Theme: "Theme Name"
Favorite Features of Theme: ...
Possible Drawbacks of Favorite Theme: ...
Things I dislike in the "Other" Theme: ....

If you have more wordy feedback, perhaps add it to the end of your post

[Ziggy]

Of the two...

Recommended Theme: BBOTS
Favorite Features of Theme: Traditional, but not bland
Possible Drawbacks of Favorite Theme: None?
Things I dislike in the "Other" Theme: I do not like "Milk" because it looks too generic.

BBOTS is rather nice. I like how it's still more of a traditional forum layout, but still fairly sleek looking. I do not like Milk at all, it strikes me as a really sterile and generic forum skin. It reminds me more of something you'd see on a company forum, like Adobe or Microsoft, rather than an inviting community.

I think the default prosilver skins are very nice. I use the light version of prosilver myself, dark themes tend to hurt my eyes. If you were to go with BBOTS or some other custom skin, it would be nice to keep both prosilver skins as options. Maybe just slap a proper header on them so they don't look so generic.

So does this mean the last custom RB skin cannot be ported to the current version of phpbb?

[racketboy]

Correct, I've been told by an experienced phpbb developer is that it's way more time than it's worth and should be much easier to implement the main RB header on top of another 3.3 theme.

[Ziggy]

And you can swap the checkered background too, right? The header, the background, and some color tweaking and you have something very close anyway.

[marurun]

BBOTS live preview won’t work on my phone, unlike the other theme.

[Ack]

Between the two, I like BBOTS more. I really don't like the color usage on Milk at all.

That said, I've been on this forum for several versions. I prefer the darker themes, so Prosilver Dark is what I'm sticking with.

[marurun]

I tend not to like dark themes because there’s always one or two areas where the designers didn’t manage contrast well and I can’t read some critical heading text somewhere. I think I would like dark themes better if most of them didn’t screw that up.

[racketboy]

So I explored those two themes a bit more.

I can see that Milk might seem more "vanilla" or "corporate", although I'm curious what aspects about Milk make you feel that way. (it never crossed my mind, personally)

I happen to like how they have things spaced and positioned in Milk.
I also have a personal preference for having the profiles/avatars on the left instead of right on Desktop, but maybe I'm just old-school that way
The page loading "transition/animation" is interesting too.

If I were deciding between ProSilver and BBOTS, I feel like I might be leaning towards ProSilver.
I think my main concern is ProSilver is the avatar sizing/placement and then how some of the links (like Active/New topics) are tucked away in a menu.
And vs either of the "premium" themes I linked to, there's less ability to customize easily.

I'm still processing this all, but wanted to share my thoughts.

[o.pwuaioc]

Between the two, I like BBOTS more. I really don't like the color usage on Milk at all.

That said, I've been on this forum for several versions. I prefer the darker themes, so Prosilver Dark is what I'm sticking with.

I also like Prosilver Dark over the other two, but otherwise I'm the opposite on Milk v. BBOTS. For me, Milk is generic and corporate, yes, but BBOTS looks too rudimentary, and I really do not like the profiles on the right. (So Milk has that going for it over Prosilver Dark, too.)

If it we were to switch to Milk, I wouldn't mind, and the thread layout would benefit. I think BBOTS is a step in the wrong direction, though. I actually like the bigger avatars - gives the forum more charm, imo.

Nick: I can flesh out my thoughts on Milk more after work.

[racketboy]

Nick: I can flesh out my thoughts on Milk more after work.

Sure, I'm down for that!