Interferon

My users almost never add blog or blog entry images when they write articles. Without background images, the default theming for these is really ugly, to the point where I am considering removing this functionality from our site.
It's very obvious looking at the official IPS blog, they put a lot of time into selecting blog entry photos from a common source of stock photos with a certain consistency in the theme. That's cool, but the current design of the blog system creates a big burden to select good images that look consistent. It's more suited to an official company blog than to a site with user-generated content where people sloppily post whatever comes to mind.
Any time you allow users to customize the appearance of anything, they will f*ck it up. Think about those awful custom profiles from MySpace.

Could open source this with a git repository that anyone inclined to assist could contribute to. I have none of the skills required to do anything technical and all I can do is cheerlead. Frankly I also like the default skin save for some decisions about how big text and other elements are on mobile/tablet which is why I run at 75% zoom on mobile, so not a huge vested interest either. But clearly there are a lot of people who want a default skin that is far more flexible for their needs, and there is absolutely the talent here to help. Doesn’t seem like a candidate for a paid exercise, but something the community will need to figure out on its own. Ultimately, maybe providing a working framework that can be compared to what Invision provides and makes the case for certain changes. Would love to see that sort of collaboration. Can also happily assist with any grunt work lower skilled tasks if they are needed. 

I think it t would be useful if version 4.5 would have an easy way to rename Clubs to Groups by just moving a slider or ticking a box in the ACP instead of manually editing each instance where Club(s) is found in the language file.  Would anyone like to see that?
I've not used clubs with success in my community because members don't seem to get clubs because they are use to groups on FB.

Yeah, that is what I am saying. I am a software developer, and I understand design decisions that are made for a whole have different ramifications from design decisions that are made on a case by case basis.
But I also understand that your most core functionality needs to weigh heavily in those design decisions. Honestly, right now the system looks like it has a CSS file not loading or something.

The problem is that every update breaks our customizations. I am tired of this never-ending cycle of chasing a moving target. The default skin is finally good enough I feel okay just replacing the header and footer with our own. So in spite of my criticism, things actually are moving in the right direction.
I don't think it is possible to ever get the skin perfect:
Google is forcing everyone to use "responsive design" which massively complicates everything. If we had a free-market economic system the government would shut down monopolistic practices like this, but I digress. IPB is a collection of applications with some shared functionality, and that modularity of features will always lead to some tricky design choices. So I think we can reasonably expect to see some awkward spacing in various parts of the design. However, I think some more effort should be put into improving the most common parts of the most commonly used functionality, and the forum topics list is probably one of the top three pages that get viewed most frequently in the software.

This is really excessive.

It looks even worse if your forum background is set to white.

The problem is that every update breaks our customizations. I am tired of this never-ending cycle of chasing a moving target. The default skin is finally good enough I feel okay just replacing the header and footer with our own. So in spite of my criticism, things actually are moving in the right direction.
I don't think it is possible to ever get the skin perfect:
Google is forcing everyone to use "responsive design" which massively complicates everything. If we had a free-market economic system the government would shut down monopolistic practices like this, but I digress. IPB is a collection of applications with some shared functionality, and that modularity of features will always lead to some tricky design choices. So I think we can reasonably expect to see some awkward spacing in various parts of the design. However, I think some more effort should be put into improving the most common parts of the most commonly used functionality, and the forum topics list is probably one of the top three pages that get viewed most frequently in the software.

You're not allowed to have an opinion because your opinion is an opinion.

Thank you thank you thank you.

You're not allowed to have an opinion because your opinion is an opinion.

Just compare this:

The problem is that every update breaks our customizations. I am tired of this never-ending cycle of chasing a moving target. The default skin is finally good enough I feel okay just replacing the header and footer with our own. So in spite of my criticism, things actually are moving in the right direction.
I don't think it is possible to ever get the skin perfect:
Google is forcing everyone to use "responsive design" which massively complicates everything. If we had a free-market economic system the government would shut down monopolistic practices like this, but I digress. IPB is a collection of applications with some shared functionality, and that modularity of features will always lead to some tricky design choices. So I think we can reasonably expect to see some awkward spacing in various parts of the design. However, I think some more effort should be put into improving the most common parts of the most commonly used functionality, and the forum topics list is probably one of the top three pages that get viewed most frequently in the software.

Yeah, that is what I am saying. I am a software developer, and I understand design decisions that are made for a whole have different ramifications from design decisions that are made on a case by case basis.
But I also understand that your most core functionality needs to weigh heavily in those design decisions. Honestly, right now the system looks like it has a CSS file not loading or something.

I don't have a problem with calling this aspect of the design "terrible" because it is.
The previous version had the follow button on the same level as the Forum title.
Somebody made the "terrible" decision to move this button into acres of precious vertical space, all on its own. What was wrong with leaving it where it was? Why is this necessary? If it had to be moved below the title as an essential button then why not place it beside the start topic button?
Or if a follow button is of such paramount importance to be a leading feature for the landing page, why not go full width?
You've probably all heard of the "hero image" ... welcome to its successor, the "hero button"

The problem is that every update breaks our customizations. I am tired of this never-ending cycle of chasing a moving target. The default skin is finally good enough I feel okay just replacing the header and footer with our own. So in spite of my criticism, things actually are moving in the right direction.
I don't think it is possible to ever get the skin perfect:
Google is forcing everyone to use "responsive design" which massively complicates everything. If we had a free-market economic system the government would shut down monopolistic practices like this, but I digress. IPB is a collection of applications with some shared functionality, and that modularity of features will always lead to some tricky design choices. So I think we can reasonably expect to see some awkward spacing in various parts of the design. However, I think some more effort should be put into improving the most common parts of the most commonly used functionality, and the forum topics list is probably one of the top three pages that get viewed most frequently in the software.

This is really excessive.

It looks even worse if your forum background is set to white.

The problem is that every update breaks our customizations. I am tired of this never-ending cycle of chasing a moving target. The default skin is finally good enough I feel okay just replacing the header and footer with our own. So in spite of my criticism, things actually are moving in the right direction.
I don't think it is possible to ever get the skin perfect:
Google is forcing everyone to use "responsive design" which massively complicates everything. If we had a free-market economic system the government would shut down monopolistic practices like this, but I digress. IPB is a collection of applications with some shared functionality, and that modularity of features will always lead to some tricky design choices. So I think we can reasonably expect to see some awkward spacing in various parts of the design. However, I think some more effort should be put into improving the most common parts of the most commonly used functionality, and the forum topics list is probably one of the top three pages that get viewed most frequently in the software.

The problem is that every update breaks our customizations. I am tired of this never-ending cycle of chasing a moving target. The default skin is finally good enough I feel okay just replacing the header and footer with our own. So in spite of my criticism, things actually are moving in the right direction.
I don't think it is possible to ever get the skin perfect:
Google is forcing everyone to use "responsive design" which massively complicates everything. If we had a free-market economic system the government would shut down monopolistic practices like this, but I digress. IPB is a collection of applications with some shared functionality, and that modularity of features will always lead to some tricky design choices. So I think we can reasonably expect to see some awkward spacing in various parts of the design. However, I think some more effort should be put into improving the most common parts of the most commonly used functionality, and the forum topics list is probably one of the top three pages that get viewed most frequently in the software.

I understand the design is made up of rows, and some of the stuff like "follow this content" is probably a global row that gets added across all types of content. And then you have to have a "responsive" design thanks to Google's mandates, which makes it more complicated. So I understand it can never be "perfect".
Still, I think for the most commonly viewed parts of the forum, having three inches of white space below the forum title, something needs to be done about that.
The only reason I am pointing this out is because we are moving away from our heavily customized skin in order to make updates easier, and because the default IPB skin is now good enough that I feel it's okay to use. (We just replaced the header and footer with out own.)
Ideally, this is what it should look like:

This is really excessive.

It looks even worse if your forum background is set to white.

The new admin CP, especially with the dark theme looks really good. The whole thing feels "fun" to navigate. Browsing marketplace items looks really good, especially with the dark admin panel theme. Very nice.

I understand the design is made up of rows, and some of the stuff like "follow this content" is probably a global row that gets added across all types of content. And then you have to have a "responsive" design thanks to Google's mandates, which makes it more complicated. So I understand it can never be "perfect".
Still, I think for the most commonly viewed parts of the forum, having three inches of white space below the forum title, something needs to be done about that.
The only reason I am pointing this out is because we are moving away from our heavily customized skin in order to make updates easier, and because the default IPB skin is now good enough that I feel it's okay to use. (We just replaced the header and footer with out own.)
Ideally, this is what it should look like:

This is really excessive.

It looks even worse if your forum background is set to white.

The new admin CP, especially with the dark theme looks really good. The whole thing feels "fun" to navigate. Browsing marketplace items looks really good, especially with the dark admin panel theme. Very nice.

I understand the design is made up of rows, and some of the stuff like "follow this content" is probably a global row that gets added across all types of content. And then you have to have a "responsive" design thanks to Google's mandates, which makes it more complicated. So I understand it can never be "perfect".
Still, I think for the most commonly viewed parts of the forum, having three inches of white space below the forum title, something needs to be done about that.
The only reason I am pointing this out is because we are moving away from our heavily customized skin in order to make updates easier, and because the default IPB skin is now good enough that I feel it's okay to use. (We just replaced the header and footer with out own.)
Ideally, this is what it should look like: