Forum design

[Silwynar]

Hey :)

I am just new to this forum but there is one thing that really don't like.
The red design (not especially the banner, more the red font, the red boxes (portal, search, mebers, calender, help for example) is kinda annoying.

I know the red is for Crimson Daggers, and it's not like it doesn't fit to the other sites, but at this forum view...
The red background and banner, and then some neutral grey toned buttons, boxes, ... would be better in MY opinion.

Perhaps it's just me who doesn't like it, but I wanted to throw this suggestion in. ^^

Greetings,
Sil

[DK]

I'll just make it so you can select which view you want in your control panel. I'll do this neutral grey one you want for a second forum view. Should be done sometime soon.

[DK]

Okay, I added a grey version of the red template and set it as the default. You can change it by going here.

You'll see under "other options" a menu called "board style" select "CrimsonDaggers_Red" or "CrimsonDaggers_Gray" and click "Update Options". Let me know how it looks to you and if you have any other suggestions.

Edit: I made the grey version the default because I kind of liked it. If you liked the red theme you can change back in your control panel.

[Silwynar]

Oh my god! :)
Thank you so much.

Much more readable for my eyes now.

Glad you could work on it that early.

[paulashin]

I kinda liked the reddish theme but I'll try the grey one also :D
Nice suggestion

[mouser]

Since there is a topic open about the design of the forum i was wondering if there is a way to make the forum fit the entire browser space, it just gets annoying when pictures are to big and the entire thread goes out of proportion and heads to the right.

I was thinking maybe block the images just so they don't get out of the thread and add individual sliders to them( i have seen many forums using this) or if possible make the forum as wide as the browser lets you to, it just looks better that way.

Thanks

[ferrando]

love the work you're putting into the forum,

my only 2 cents would be thumbnails for sketchbooks.
or the thread creators avatar as the threads thumbnail in the sketchbook section

only so we know whose thread we are clicking on without remembering everyones name or thread title.

thanks!

[gangstershit]

Dennis: I just wanted to say hugs and kisses for hosting this forum. It's a big responsibility and I wanted to give you your props. You could make this site hot pink on olive green and I'd still love it.

[Nemome]

Played a bit around in photoshop.
Nothing big, just changed contrasts and brightness and some points.
How do you guys like it? :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dobw58hidag9xqj/Design.jpg

[dave]

Hi, it would be a good idea if we had the option to tone down or darken the logo's colors, or just not see it at all: http://crimsondaggers.com/forum/images/C...s_logo.jpg

The bright red with white stitchy outlining 'pops', and that may have been the intention of the design but it really hurts my eyes and makes me nauseous. Just in case there are more color sensitive members out there, you can take that into consideration.

[Wolkenfels]

I would like to point out to Marius' (mouser) post before.
If we have a lot of digital artists in here it is fair to assume that a lot of good monitor sceens are used. limiting the size of the post-section to 994 pixel makes the forum look ridiculous on a big screen (e.g. my work screen has 1900px wide - the section with the posts is less than 50% of my screen wide. So maybe a change on the css for the container from pixel to relative % and to make the width somewhat like 80% of the screen size or so would maybe utilize the screen size of the viewer better.

[SpectreX]

I too agree with the relative % of width of indeed possible.

[smrr]

I think it'd be awesome to have an 'Add Multiple Attachments' function, instead of having to click 'Add Attachment' after each single file selection.
It could save a lot of time.
If that would be at all possible. :)

[Dan Warren]

ok all, this is an increasingly talked about issue so i have decided to address all aspects of it here, open for everyone.

the issue at hand is, with almost 2000 members of the forum now (300 coming here this week alone), a lot of people are asking for changes and commenting on the style of the forum to make it look more professional and accessible.

there are a few things you all need to know before we go forward, they are as follows-

1) This forum is free, and adding certain more advanced features will cost money. if the site gets too big it will also end up costing money due to server costs. we want to avoid this as much as we can, because we dont want any bad atmosphere invading things here if we need to ask for money and donations. WITH THAT BEING SAID-

if we ever did ask for donations or had to to keep this going, we would make the donations public and open for anyone to view. if we took money out we would also make that public, as this is a charity site and none of the money would ever go to david, dennis, or myself. i hope this is an outcome we dont have to face, since involving money has been a proven method of making everything in these communities worse.


2) daggers is and always should be BY ARTISTS FOR ARTISTS. what i mean by this is that id prefer to have fewer members and more working artists, as opposed to more members for the sake of a higher number, with a smaller percentage actually being working artists. if this site gets big, it should be because more artists want to be a part of it, not because it attracts an audience of people who just wanna creep and comment.

this group was founded on helping artists grow and improve, and we want to keep that as the core focus. making things more accessible just because could have the opposite effect, so keep that in mind when thinking on ways to improve.

3) we are open to communal suggestions about improving the look of the site. the site as it stands looks a certain way because our mentality (dave, dennis, and myself) going into this was that daggers was gonna be the shitty gym down the street real dudes went and worked at every day as opposed to the streamlined planet hotbody in the inner city where people just go to look good. the mentality of work > image has always been at the core here.

that being said- if people have issues with the site all across the board and they are common and agreed upon (the forum hurts my eyes, my images look bad on white are the most common so far), we will definitely try and sort that out to make it a better experience for everyone.


feel free to post ANY suggestions below with these things in mind. if its a good idea and realistic, and popular with other members, we will do our best to see it taken care of. best-

Dennis, David, and Daniel

[Dan Warren]

keep in mind, guys

Even those of you jumping ship from ca should realize that theres still cghub, imaginefx forums, da, cgtalk, and others. this site doesnt have to be and shouldnt be ' general art forum ive seen #6'. small and unique is so much better than huge and bland. other people with way more money who care way more than we do can run those kinds of sites better than us.

truth

[Mike086]

General rule: don't complain about free.

Edit: let me cut the bluntness a bit by saying, those little inconveniences amount to extra clicks and waiting a few minutes.

Second edit: I'd generally advise any artist to refrain from suggesting someone change their logo/masthead unless they were requested to give feedback.

[DK]

I changed the template to a darker theme but you can change it back to the old theme in UserCP/Edit Options/Board Style if you want.

[Dan Warren]

haha yea i love this. it feels so expensive.

[Chong Li]

VERY GOOD

[AMircea]

I didn't care much for the design, but I liked the old one because it didn't cause any eye "problems" (for me at least). I like this one as well, maybe I'll like it even more once I get used to it, but the readability of the red links need to be adjusted a bit.

I suggest to change the tone of the red links slightly, because the dark red is quite hard to read (you have to focus your eyes exactly on each word otherwise the text looses itself in the background and looks blurry). A color code to create a bit of contrast, maybe something like #ef0110 or #df0c13 (instead of #cd0013) would work great.

:heart: