Bulky/ugly look & feel

[pilot7]

Current Look & Feel is bulky/ugly. Consider the look the feel of the following. It is neat & clean.

http://forum.canardaviation.com/ by vBulletin.

Another example
http://forum.soundpressure.com/

But why is your Invision forum/board so bulky looking.

Can you redesign your look & feel to be neat & clean?

[Rikki]

It's all opinion - our feedback suggests many users like the default skin. Of course, this is why we have the skinning system, so that people can make it look just like they want :)

[Enkidu]

are you kidding me? you find this neat and clean :huh:

[pilot7]

Yes, I find it neat & clean VS the bulky looking default skin that Invision has.

I am not very technical, so I don't know how to change skin.

Can the default invision skin be made better looking?

[AngelFire]

you dont have to be technical to install a new skin, but i find the default nice, better looking, but then again, i dont use default skins lol

[Booth]

http://forum.canardaviation.com/ by vBulletin.

Another example

http://forum.soundpressure.com/

But why is your Invision forum/board so bulky looking.

Using the VB3 default skin as an example of something neat and clean and not bulky looking is like saying hooves are better to climb with than hands ;) That aside, I don't particularly like the IPB3 default skin and the Cleancut skin isn't a great alternative. Though I'd suggest a premium skin or hiring someone for a custom design then you can get exactly what you want.

[Gabriel Petrelli]

I'm one of the IPB users who also thought the new look of IPB was bulky/clunky, even custom skins and templates don't do this fact justice. I much more preferred the simple and clean look of IPB2, Vbulletin 3.x, and Mybb. However since using IPB3 for a while I've become more accustomed to the bulkiness/bloated look of IPB3.

You are probably not going to get the response you are looking for as most everyone here will like whatever is churned out from IPS by default and don't see anything wrong with it, I suppose you can't expect anymore from an official support forum for a particular product.

So let's all have a glass of Kool-Aid together. :unsure:

[Terry - AKA Dumbledore]

The company has to provide a default skin that is, to best of their ability, that is stable for all users. A lot of user don't like or use the default, but it is the best to use as a basis to make your own skin. That is why IPD worked so hard to improve the skinning system.

[Mat Barrie]

Rikki, Since your on this thread and I have been asking similar questions as this original poster, would it be possible for you to provide more than one default skin template. I dont want anything fancy, just square corners, and something that you guys at IPS have had your hands on that I can put a little faith in.

I cant imagine it would be very difficult for you to come up with something like the Pro Style minus all the problems. Or for you to make a couple very simple skins, like one fluid, and one fixed, with square corners. I dont mind hacking around in the back to change colors myself and things like that but having to start from scratch is more than I can do without spending a few month learning how to fix everything, needless to say doing a entire skin myself could cause reliability issues. The bottom line is I need to spend my time creating content, not hacking into and having to fix my my forum styles.

As things are we have hundreds and hundreds of forums all using the default skin and no options coming from IPS. I can go buy skins but I would rather deal with IPS since you created the software and know it better then anyone else. That and I'm tired of screwing around with Skins in general. I got a half doxen good word press skins inside a hour, 100% reliable, everything perfect. Here I have spent three months and uncountable hours sorting through all this nonsense and all I need is a basic and simple skin that is square cornered and reliable.

Yes, we'd all love to pay more just because you want more skins. You're starting to sound like a broken record, and every post you manage to offend more and more of the skinning community (even worse than mrspock29!)

The bottom line is IPS needs to spend more time creating content, not hacking into and having to fix forum styles. So, you got half a dozen good Wordpress skins? I bet few to none of those are from the Wordpress developers. IPS indirectly offers multiple skins by way of the community skin project - these are volunteers who have more direct support than the average and official backing (including their skins being installed here). If you want more skins, you should really be offering suggestions to the community skins people not harassing the staff.

[Ryan H.]

I don't want to seem pretentious or like I'm trying to take advantage of the situation, but pilot7 and Bubba, you might both be interested in one of my skins, Thoreau--I happen to agree with you both to an extent about the default skin, so I made my own version. Glance at the demo [link from here]; if you don't care for it, no harm done.

Bubba, I know you don't think highly of the skin community; you haven't made much of an effort of hiding that. All I will say to you is that your apparent experiences are far from the norm.

[Ditchmonkey]

The default IPB skin is both very professional and easy to modify. I spend a lot on design for some of my sites, and I was pleased that I needed to do very little skin alterations to get my latest IPB-based website online.

I'd also like to point out that calling VB's default skin - with its multiple shades of purple - "clean" is ridiculous. I can't think of many business users that would want to install and use a default skin that is purple. And the VB admin - lol. I mean seriously LOL.

It seems that what some of you call "bulky/ugly" is simply professional, clean design up to current standards. Study usability. Users, especially older users, are better able to interact with a website that has reasonable use of white space (bulk by your definition). Cramming a million little things in the smallest possible space, using bad graphics, and garish colors (ironically your definition of "neat and clean") is both amateurish and inappropriate for a modern commercial software product.

So download one of the many free skins available and you can have your "neat and clean".

[Brett B]

http://forum.canardaviation.com/ by vBulletin.

Another example

http://forum.soundpressure.com/

But why is your Invision forum/board so bulky looking.

I couldn't disagree more. I think the vBulletin design, especially the two you linked to, look bulky, cluttered, unorganized, confusing, and ugly. The default IPB 3 design has a clean, open feel to it. And if you don't like it, customize it to your liking.

[b0x]

Using the VB3 default skin as an example of something neat and clean and not bulky looking is like saying hooves are better to climb with than hands ;)

You may want to rethink your analogy: http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2708013&postcount=1
My money is on the hooves!

[Rikki]

Rikki, Since your on this thread and I have been asking similar questions as this original poster, would it be possible for you to provide more than one default skin template. I dont want anything fancy, just square corners, and something that you guys at IPS have had your hands on that I can put a little faith in.

I cant imagine it would be very difficult for you to come up with something like the Pro Style minus all the problems. Or for you to make a couple very simple skins, like one fluid, and one fixed, with square corners. I dont mind hacking around in the back to change colors myself and things like that but having to start from scratch is more than I can do without spending a few month learning how to fix everything, needless to say doing a entire skin myself could cause reliability issues. The bottom line is I need to spend my time creating content, not hacking into and having to fix my my forum styles.

As things are we have hundreds and hundreds of forums all using the default skin and no options coming from IPS. I can go buy skins but I would rather deal with IPS since you created the software and know it better then anyone else. That and I'm tired of screwing around with Skins in general. I got a half doxen good word press skins inside a hour, 100% reliable, everything perfect. Here I have spent three months and uncountable hours sorting through all this nonsense and all I need is a basic and simple skin that is square cornered and reliable.

The problem is the time this takes. I know it sounds simple to make a few extra skins to ship, but the reality is it increases our development time exponentially. For example, take the updates we've made to Blog, Gallery and Downloads. If we had 5 skins, these updates would take many times longer to put together, because each skin would have to be updated and tested before we can release. This is not a simple process. It's hours of additional development time for every release.

Also, you mention you want a choice of skins because loads of forums are using this one. The thing is, if we ship 5 default skins, all the forums will use those too, so you'll just be back where you are now.

[Michael R]

http://forum.canardaviation.com/ by vBulletin.

Another example

http://forum.soundpressure.com/

But why is your Invision forum/board so bulky looking.

Your opinion. I've modded and administrated IPB, vB, and pphBB sites not to mention about a dozen WP sites and my personal opinion is vB is ugly and confusing. :rolleyes:

[Mama Gail]

Bubba, I offer free skins and all I can say to you for attacking the IP staff and skinning community whether you like my skins or any of the free/paid skin community is that you really need to get a life. Attacking anyone never gets you anywhere. Remember the golden rule, someday it will bite you on the azz. I am tired of hearing how our designs and IP staff is inferior. Everyone works very hard and time spent. Show me yours and see if you like being attacked after spending 8 or 9 hours on a design. Maybe than you will keep your tongue in your mouth.

[Rikki]

Maybe I was not clear in my writing before. The first thing that stands out is if you guys at IPS cannot maintain five default skins how in the world do you expect Volunteers to do it? How do you expect all these fly by night Skins operations to keep and maintain their Skins if the originator of the software is not capable of doing it? And most importantly if you guys, the software originator cannot take care of this how in the world do you expect me, a average customer, to take keep things up and running?

It does not work that way. With one default skin, we can test, then release a product update, and then skinners can work on their skin updates on their own timetable. If we have 5 default skins, we cannot release the software at all until they are updated. It's not a case of we can't handle 5 skins, it's the fact it delays the entire development process for everyone, and increases development costs too.

There are many skins available which are not made by volunteers, but by people who make a business out of selling affordable skins. Perhaps you should check out some of those, you may find them more suitable?