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I've been thinking about our little board here and wondering if maybe we should have some brighter colors instead of the black. I'm not saying that I don't like the black but I think we might be a better response if we changed a few things here's my reasoning.

1. Dark colors tend to be a little (visually) intimidating for some people. If we used brighter, more upbeat colors new posters might consider this board to be more lively and fun and thus might check in more often.

2. Reading white text on a dark background causes more eye strain and can actually give some people headaches if they read alot at a time.

I hope nobody thinks that I'm saying that I think the current setup sucks because I'm not...I just trying to help find a way to make our board even better. I love coming here and I think we have some real great comradery here. I just want to make sure that people stick around long enough to see that.
The things that I've brought up is just standard stuff that I learned in design school so I thought I'd throw it out so that everyone could tell me what they think.

I have supported the idea of you and Raz getting together to jazz some stuff up. Originally I just wanted 5-6 new pictures added as headers of each forum. You know so a pic of the OT will be in the OT forum and a pic from a book will be on the novels. Now that you brought this up I have gotten eye strain, though have never had any real gripes with the black. I suggest you e-mail Raz about your visual ideas. The same pic of the senate building on everything is really getting stale.

I don't want anything to change. The reason I use this forum the most is that it is easy to read and not too bright or cluttered with pictures.

Yeah, well I do like the black, but new heading pictures on each forum wouldn't alter it too much.

It hurts my eyes sometimes... What if we did something like had white or light grey back ground instead of the dark red and then just used black text (but still have the main background be black)? How do you think that would work? I think that if we could come up with a couple of different options and then used the Collecting forum to let everyone acutally see what they look like we could find something that's maybe a little bit easier for everyone to handle. I think we do need to brighten things up some and by that I don't mean how everyone else has done it...I don't want to use the same color scheme as TF.N has used....Maybe something more Nightclub Coruscant

I like it the way it is but some of the less used forums could be changed. We don't want this forum to look the same as the others and that's what I like about it. It doesn't look like a picture gallery.

Oh trust me KJ anything I do isn't going to end up looking like the others....I think some of the others who've seen what kind of stuff I do can vouch for that. I agree about making it a picture gallery. I don't want everything super mega splashy. Trust me...this is the person who gets testy about sigs and pics being too bright and big

I don't want the colours to change but it would be good if we had different pictures at the top of each forum ie. a picture of the Jedi Council on the JC forum.

RC, I'd really like your imput since you've done your own site..

Sure, just run it past Raz first but I'd be happy to help out if I can.

I go on holiday to Florida in a week for two weeks though.

I think we're taking out time on it anyway...Raz is busy I'm sure....

Florida?...Disneyworld again?...fun!

Yep, 2 weeks of 5 foot rodents and 13 story drops.

Dim I've been telling you to run my diffrent headers idea past Raz for weeks.

I like it how it is.

I know Xiz. I've talked to Raz and I'm going to make mockups of of new layout colors. After we decide that then I think we can move on to the banners. I'll try to have some stuff to show you by Wednesday.

You go girl!

I'll try not to disappoint

No please try and dissapoint as I'm scared this forum is going to go like the rest.

KJ, chill and trust the girl will you.

Okay, there's some color swatches. I kept the very back black because I haven't seen very many boards do that and I think it's a cool look. If anyone wants me to try something else let me know...All the text on the black background would stay white and basically in the same place as it is now I think...I didn't put ln all in so just use your imagination...
After we get a color scheme down then we can worry about the graphics (which I think should have an irregular edge kind of like the one I stuck in as a temp..
Sorry the mockup is kind of simple...

I know some of the colors are bright and strange but I wanted to put all the options I could come up with out to you guys.

-----Remember this is just peleminary, don't rip on me too bad! ------

Blue green:
homepages.go.com/~dimglit...egreen.jpg

grey:
homepages.go.com/~dimglit...wotone.jpg

red yellow:
homepages.go.com/~dimglit...yellow.jpg

yellow green:
homepages.go.com/~dimglit...wgreen.jpg

yellow grey:
homepages.go.com/~dimglit...owgrey.jpg

gold white:
homepages.go.com/~dimglit...dwhite.jpg

yellow white:
homepages.go.com/~dimglit...wwhite.jpg

yellow two tone:
homepages.go.com/~dimglit...wotone.jpg

red tan:
homepages.go.com/~dimglitter/redtan.jpg

Tell me what you like, hate and want to see another version of and if you want to see something instead of the black...

I like it how it is now but it could use a new color.

Fine EJ...which color? if nobody picks then we're not going to get anywhere with this

Um?White or green.

I like the greytwotone

I like the grey best too..It's nice and neutral so we could make all kinds of graphics and not have to worry about about the color clashing..

EJ, are you talking about the samples or are you just throwing out background colors?

Are we talking about the main forum because if we are nobody has actually said it's going to be changed. Or have they?

Throwing out back ground covers.

KJ, we're talking about the all the forums...it's going to be the new general look for all of them.

EJ, I'll put together a few for you tomarrow..

okay

I still say the main one should stay exactly as it is but the others should change. Aren't we going to vote on this?

I like the main one too.

Maybe we should just keep it how it is.

*sigh*

I think the colour schemes on the other forums should change and have different pictures.Like a picture of the JC on the JC forum and a picture of Mos Eisley Cantina on the GDF page.

I think some pictures should be added relating to the forum but keep the color.

I think we need to do something about the color or my eyeballs are going to fall out of my head...White text on black and dark red is serious eye strain...

here's another one with a white background with the two tone grey...
homepages.go.com/~dimglit...nwhtie.jpg

I personally like the grey with the black background..

Raz, is is possible to have you go head and put the grey up so we can see it?

One way or another we need to get this figured out before we fix up new graphics or it's going to end up not looking very sharp..IMHO Plus I for one would like to do something a little bit more dynamic then just stealing some screenshot and slapping them together. for graphics..

How does this look?

I think I like the black and the white backgrounds best...what do you guys think? I think the white looks really good. it's my favorite.. Thanks Raz!

And guys remember that if we come up with really original graphics it won't look anything like the others...that's what I'm counting on..



trust me...I can go really different if you want me too..if that stuff scare you then just ignore it..

Well it is kind of bright.Give me a day and I'll get used to it.Could you make my forum Green Dim?

Well this is worse than I expected. It's too bright. I think all of the forums should stay black with white writing but you could have different coloured trims for the different forums. Look at Ratcats. The black background and red trim looks good. We could use that for one forum and have other colours like blue, orange,green for the others. It would make all of the forums different but not too much.

Dim is that your site?

Yes it is a bit bright, what if the background went back to black?...I think we should keep all the forums the same layout and have the graphics be what sets them apart..I do like the grey better though...Raz, what do you think?

yes that is my (sad little) site KJ..

What kind of graphics do you think would be different than other SW boards?

I think the main background should be black, but we need a text colour that looks good on black and light grey. Any suggestions?

Still hurts the eyes.How about dark green with white words?

Are we just talking about the suggestions forum? I hope so. Raz you should look at Ratcats forum as I like the colours he uses.

Raz? Can you only use one text color or can you use more than one? If it doesn't have to be just one color then why don't you try gold or maroon as the text color on black and black on light grey..

I think it might look cool if you had the Suggestion forum, email and log in info (on the black) in maroon and the rest in gold..
You could also try taking the dark grey a darker and then have that text in gold...

I might be hurting more than I'm helping here

The text colour has to remain the same on all the page
Any suggestions?
Or should I revert back to the old scheme?

Well if it all has to be one color I suggest maroon...but it doesn't make sense...I've seen other boards with more then one color...how do they pull it off? oh well, what go I know...

Which Ezboard is this? I could ask the mods on that forum, how they did it.

In the settings for the forum, it just asks what colour would you like the text. It doesn't have an option for choosing the text colour that is on a table, unfortunately.

Well it should go back to normal then. There are other ways to update the look of the forums.

I agree with EJ's comment. The original black backround with white script is the best, it will make KJ happy too. Yet since this is the suggestions forum and only 1 of several we have here, I don't mind us fooling around on it and testing new ideas. Dim I can't wait to see the new header pictures you come up with. I'm anticipating something totally diffrent that both relates to each individual forum it's put over, but is also visually stunning and original to our site.

I'm still looking for it Raz...(of course I wouldn't be able to find it now) but RC kinda has the 2 text color thing going on his...check that one out.

I don't know..it sounds like everyone just wants to go back to the old black on white ...maybe we should..*sigh*

I would like that. As I said there are other ways to change the look of the forum.