Does style matter to you?

Well, a interesting question..

Apparently, style is a factor to some people, in terms of joining a forum, regardless of content or community(rarely, but yes..)..

Does it matter whether if a forum has a subpar style or not to you?

In my case, I've had people on other forums criticize the style I'm using on my own forum, saying it's "too dark" or "makes me think of death" and frankly, it's a gaming forum.

Most gaming forums have dark styles.

But, because of that, I've decided to take proSilver and modify it some, so my forum has a light theme.

I don't care about style much, in my opinion.

Content and community are what matter to me.

 

The style is the very heart of a forum/site, in my opinion, so of course, it matters to me. I mean, if you don't choose your themes wisely, then you won't get many registrations. And it would put members off. For example, I really like this community's style, and that's why I joined and am participating in threads and whatnot.

 

Well, personally you've been on my site before("The Resistance", which is now"I.O.G.A") because a post exchange.

But I've got good content, but yet I don't get why not many people are registering..

 

Well personally I will go with sites with high quality content rather than style but that's just me. Some niche forums such as gaming or hacking work great with dark colors while others with serious themes are more suited for simple styles. It also depends on the owner's preference, if the owner has a knack of style it will reflect in his forum.

 

YES! It's 2012. We have millions of sites, most niches are so crowded it's crazy. And you cannot come in 2012 with a sub-par design, because you won't make it. 10 years ago people were less educated and would 'swallow' anything. now they look for a professional look, they want a nice design, they know what's good and bad. We're not in the '90s anymore and yes, LOOKS MATTER online too

 

I totally agree with Dojo! If you're going to create a website, put out something that is user friendly. Aside from the aesthetic aspect it's also about usability. Personally I hate websites with dark backgrounds. I don't know who set in stone that gaming sites have to be this way but it makes it very hard to read the content. If I see a poorly designed site my thoughts are the webmaster isn't really serious about their business and thus I leave. So I think you should care about your site's design and style. Dojo is right. In the 90s you could get away with that nonsense but now people expect more.

 

thats true, I agree with it. XD

 

Well, I guess I'm gonna have to make a light theme for my forum..

 

I hate dark styles for most forums, so I guess style does matter to me. That is probably because I design templates myself, and I'm a perfectionist.

 

Not all niches are over-crowded though. And plus, if they're crowded, there's a lot more room to grow and expand. The more sites, the bigger the audience the whole niche has.