Multiple styles - good or bad

Many forums and other communities have multiple styles

They could usually be considered a good idea as members can simply choose the design that they like best, and this is especially useful for members who don't like the default theme

However,

I thought I should bring to attention that this is not always a good idea, the site theme effects how the member feels about the site, and if you have multiple themes, different members will have different feelings and that is sometimes bad if you are trying to create a close community

Just something to think about

Please post your opinion on whether you think multiple themes are good or bad

 

I find it a bad idea and a waste of time, because I have so many mods, and template edit done, and to do it manually for multiple themes is way to much. I always go with the Default theme on any forum.

 

There are very few cases where multiple styles will have a negative impact on a forum, in my opinion. The biggest downside is as Terrorz stated, and it is that you have to maintain each separate theme as the forum owner. That can be a lot of work especially if you have mods installed.

BUT, if you're able to maintain the styles and maintain them correctly, I see very few reasons why it's not good for the community. People love choice.

 

For some, multiple styles are necessary in spite of all the template edits...a good example is a design house for forum themes.

 

Like yours

 

This is a very good point. What I feel would be a good idea with any forum is to release different versions every 3-6 months. This gives the forum a different look with updated coding and options to keep the forum from growing boring. I find this to help with the success of a forum. Too Many choose-able themes makes the forum seem cluttered in my opinion.

 

I think having multiple themes is a great idea. Not everyone likes the original theme.

 

I prefer having just two, a regular theme and a mobile version.

 

I prefer one style... not two.

 

firstly I found it to be a good idea where everyone can pick what layout they want but now its a waste of time

 

Until recently, I had two styles on my forum - the only reason being that we had launched a brand new website design which was light text on a dark background, while all of our previous designs were a dark text on a light background. I had ported the old theme to fit within the new wrapper. While it wasn't difficult to manage - both used the same template set - only three users had it set as their theme (none of whom were regular visitors), so I decided to abandon the second theme. Haven't received any complaints yet.

Technically I do have two themes now - a default and a mobile theme - but I think that hardly counts.

Whenever I visit other forums, I usually just use the default. I figure it's default for a reason, so might as well use it. I don't really think having multiple themes is too much of a problem from a user's perspective, other than the possibility of a lack of branding. With forums, your style is your brand, and so offering different styles might hinder that. As an admin, though, it is difficult to evolve your forum (aesthetically, at least) when your users are spread across various, different themes... Multiple themes that just change colors would be fine, I suppose.

 

Yea I agree, thats why I only have one theme, but yea mobile wouldnt count, but I plan on adding a mobile theme. And your site looks hot by the way, love the theme on the homepage and forum.

 

I have 2 forums. On one there are like a billion choices. On the other only 2. But they are different audiences. The one with a lot of choices is a medium sized board with a bunch of obsessive geeks. They all have particular ideas about what things should look like.

As to the problem with addons, I have the main style and then all of the rest are children of that one. Since I'm using XenForo when I do an addon it works just fine. Any template edits filters down through the rest.

 

I don't mind if there are only a couple styles to choose from, but it can be overwhelming if there are more than two to choose from. Some people really go out of their way and add loads of styles, and that's not good either. So I would say probably 2 or 3 styles to choose from would suffice.

 

If you have a lot of mods installed for example on phpBB3, multiple styles may not be a very good idea due to the amount of maintenance required, but sometimes a light & dark style choice can go down well with the community.

 

Just upgraded from XF Beta 5 to Beta 6. Hoo boy. I had 169 outdated templates I had to revert.

Let me say for the record if you have more than 2 or 3 styles you are asking for trouble or at least a lot of pain.

 

Exactly thats why I have only one.