Themes?

[CQBArms]

Are there other themes or color options for the forum?

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Well, there's the beer theme, the Teri Garr theme, the "My Favorite Tractor" color scheme, and the surprisingly unpopular Mr. Nude Rocketeer theme. :eek:
Okay, so I'm completely unqualified to answer this question. All I know is if the answer turns out to be "Sure, tons of them!", I'm going to be one unhappy rocket-type guy. :mad: ;)

[CPMcGraw]

Are there other themes or color options for the forum?

If you mean the appearance of the forum in your browser, I think this is selected by our host, Scott, when he set up the site. I looked in the UserCP area and did not see any settings options for us users that would change the appearance. I've seen other vBulletin websites with other themes used, but again, I think that's a host function only. Later revisions of the software may allow this, but not the current version Scott is using.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

If you mean the appearance of the forum in your browser, I think this is selected by our host, Scott, when he set up the site. I looked in the UserCP area and did not see any settings options for us users that would change the appearance. I've seen other vBulletin websites with other themes used, but again, I think that's a host function only. Later revisions of the software may allow this, but not the current version Scott is using.

This coming from Mr. March, 2005. :eek: :eek: :eek:

[Eagle3]

Are there other themes or color options for the forum?

Nope, this is it. Scott picked a theme and I made a banner for it.

[tbzep]

They are normally called "skins" and the skins sometimes have certain themes. Not sure about vBulletin, but forum software companies charge extra for more advanced versions with extra options.

[CQBArms]

Umm most of them are free, in vB and pHpbb they seem more to be called styles or themes at least in the user and admin control panel.

To that end if it's blue with white, I guess that's what I am stuck with.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Umm most of them are free, in vB and pHpbb they seem more to be called styles or themes at least in the user and admin control panel.

To that end if it's blue with white, I guess that's what I am stuck with.

I think you'll live. :rolleyes:

[tbzep]

Umm most of them are free, in vB and pHpbb they seem more to be called styles or themes at least in the user and admin control panel.

To that end if it's blue with white, I guess that's what I am stuck with.

I'll rephrase it. Free versions that I've fooled with usually don't come with the code for skins. If you know how to add the code to the board wrapper, then you can add them yourself. However, premium versions of software often come with several skin choices. I do a private motorcycle forum with Invision's free software and I had to add the code myself, but their premium version has it already built in, IIRC.

[CQBArms]

As I am talking about vB, the base simple version supports themes. No biggie, I was just asking.

I appreciate everyones help.

[tbzep]

As I am talking about vB, the base simple version supports themes. No biggie, I was just asking.

I appreciate everyones help.

I didn't know the free version had it. Then again, I've never dug into vB. :)

Does vBulletin have free hosting like Invision Free? If it does, I might look into setting up a forum with it to see how it works and to see if it might have more features.

[Bob Kaplow]

I haven't been here THAT long, but find the inability to set this personal preference annoying. The color choice of white on light (or dark) blue is hard to read, particularly in high glare situations.

Back in the OLD (Jim Flis, are you reading?) days, I learned that my VT100 terminal was MUCH easier to read in reverse video mode, with a white screen and black text than the "standard" black screen with white text. I've used that mode on terminals and terminal emulators since before many of you were born. Even standard hard copy books, newspapers, etc are black text on white background.

[luke strawwalker]

I've been looking around the forum for this information myself... even as I type this reply, it is MUCH easier to read the white letters on the DARK blue background than it is to read posts with white letters on the LIGHT blue background... It's pretty hard to read due to the smallish font size and the low contrast between the letter color and background color.

I was hoping that I could reset the colors to something with a higher contrast, but that doesn't seem possible. Hopefully if enough of us ask, maybe that can be added as an option for those of us who have more trouble reading the text on the light blue background than others do...

The colors are pleasing, but the white writing is too low contrast-- if it were black lettering it would be MUCH more readable and reduce eyestrain...

Could be worse... at least it's not yellow lettering on a red background... reading ANYTHING on a red background is well nigh impossible... unless you magnify it to 400 percent and scroll the page back and forth...

Contrast is a GOOD thing... :) OL JR :)

[Mark II]

I happen to really like the appearance of YORF. It's distinctive, and I think that the white-on-blue text is quite kind to my eyes. My only complaint is that it puts a practical limit on the ways that I can color text in my posts. Oh, and it needs more smileys. (OK, that's two complaints.)

MarkII

[Mark II]

I used VT100 terminals (along with Wintel desktops, and before them, DOS) in my job with the state right up until I left in 2002. It was the same sort of display that the remote terminals connected to the Honeywell mainframe had when I was doing an internship with the State of NY back in 1981.

MarkII

[luke strawwalker]

I happen to really like the appearance of YORF. It's distinctive, and I think that the white-on-blue text is quite kind to my eyes. My only complaint is that it puts a practical limit on the ways that I can color text in my posts. Oh, and it needs more smileys. (OK, that's two complaints.)

MarkII


So, Mark, if I could talk you and everybody else into coloring their text BLACK it would be easier to read on the light blue background...

How'd you do that anyway?? (grins)

I didn't say it wasn't pleasing-- I like the look of YORF as well! I just wish there was a little more contrast between the lettering and the background color. Like I said, it COULD be worse-- I've been on some webpages where it's darn near impossible to read ANYTHING because they chose RED for a background color with the text on top, and for some reason red tends to 'bleed out' over the text and make it hard to read. I dunno, maybe it's just MY eyes but I've noticed the effect, as has my Mom and a few other people I know...

The absolute WORST I've seen is yellow text on top of a RED background... though patterned backgrounds are almost as bad. The contrast is SO low, coupled with the 'bleed through' effect, that I could scarcely tell there was text on the page, let alone read it!

Thank goodness that YORF doesn't have tons of blinky flashy pop-up crap (smilies not included, they're cool!) and SIDEBAR junk.... MAN I HATE SIDEBARS!!! They make it SO hard to read stuff... even at nasaspaceflight.com I have to zoom in on every page to 150% to get the font large enough to read, and to shove the sidebars off the edge of the screen so the text box covers the full screen. Sadly that little trick won't work here-- zoom in much and the text box is wider than the screen...

Ce la vie... OL JR :)

[Mark II]

No, low contrast text over a busily patterned background is by far the worst.

I don't know if I would want YORF's background to be any darker, or it could easily become too dark. Perhaps the fonts could be made a little heavier. The poster always has the ability to enlarge the text, change the font and alter the color to increase contrast, of course.

MarkII

[Bob Kaplow]

The poster always has the ability to enlarge the text, change the font and alter the color to increase contrast, of course.

Except it's not an issue for the poster, it's an issue for the READER. How can I the READER of YORF change all the text so that it's black letters on white background like I read elsewhere? Of the handful of forums I occasionally visit, YORF by far is the hardest screen to read.

[Rocketflyer]

Except it's not an issue for the poster, it's an issue for the READER. How can I the READER of YORF change all the text so that it's black letters on white background like I read elsewhere? Of the handful of forums I occasionally visit, YORF by far is the hardest screen to read.


Say what? Did you write something? :eek:

[Mark II]

Bob, I was talking about the poster's ability to format the text for enhanced readability as it is being composed. I can read the posts on YORF that have the default formatting without any difficulty.

What is the point of posting a message that no one can read? If someone posts a message in a format that is unreadable, should the poster be surprised when no one responds to it?

MarkII

[Mark II]

Except it's not an issue for the poster, it's an issue for the READER. How can I the READER of YORF change all the text so that it's black letters on white background like I read elsewhere? Of the handful of forums I occasionally visit, YORF by far is the hardest screen to read.If, in your User Options, you have your Message Editor set to "Enhanced Interface - Full WYSIWYG Editing", you can hit the "Quote" button at the bottom of the message, and it will appear in black text on a white background in a message editing window. If the text is too small, you can just highlight it and hit the "Remove Text Formatting" button in the upper left hand corner of the Message Editing toolbar. After reading the message, you can return to the thread by hitting the Back button in your browser. You wouldn't need to do this for every message (if you did, then it might be time to get a new monitor) but it is an option if you come across a message that is really difficult to read. Of course, another option would be to simply say to the poster, "How's that again? I couldn't read your last post."

But then, there is also the possibility that the poster is just making things harder for you in order to mess with your head. <grin>

MarkII

[Mark II]

I began to post on TRF about a year after I had started posting here on YORF. After having looked at this interface for year, I found the TRF (1.0) screen to be too bright and harsh at first. :eek: It took me a couple of weeks to adjust to it.

MarkII

[rocketguy101]

w/ IE...right mouse click in your brower window, click "Select All"... I get either white text on dark blue background(s)....or dark text on white background(s)--kinda "reverse video" effect. works for my old eyes!

I tried it on some other websites that are hard on my eyes, and it make reading easier there too.

[Mark II]

Hey, you're right! It works in Firefox, too.

MarkII

[luke strawwalker]

Except it's not an issue for the poster, it's an issue for the READER. How can I the READER of YORF change all the text so that it's black letters on white background like I read elsewhere? Of the handful of forums I occasionally visit, YORF by far is the hardest screen to read.


Darn you BoB!!! You're gonna end up making me go get my glasses re-upped...

I HATES docters... (Yosemite Sam voice) :chuckle:

OL JR :)