Custom Styles, A Want Or A Need?

What do you guys think? Is it a want, or is a need for your forum, website or blog?

 

I would say its a want, having a custom style is not something important but some prefer it to be unique and stand out from other forums. Because free styles are constantly overused and many forum owners dont want to have the same look as other forums.

 

I agree, as there are many different free styles available out there, and forums run fine on them, it all depends on how different you can make your forum look on that free style

 

Yea definitely, When I would use free styles I would customize them to give them a whole new look.. thats great for people who cant afford or dont want to spend money on custom/premium styles.

 

Yup, that's what I did to Chatting Time, much more better than paying someone $$$ for a custom style

 

I did that on my previous forum PlanetGamers, although I had used a premium style on it, I still customized it and changed it to a whole new design.

 

well premium styles are usually only in the $$ figures, where as custom ones are in the $$$ figures, so is still the cheaper option

 

As Kaiser said, it's definitely a want. You can get a free style then change it up a bit to make it fit your website/forum/blog more. When you change and customize it, it seems more unique.

 

As a Designer and a coder I would recommend a custom layout for your website/blog/forum because they will just say "Oh we saw that skin before"

 

I personally think its more of a want, and not a need. My community, and a few others don't have a customized skin. I think its nice to have one because it helps with the branded over of your community, but its not really needed.

 

Yea, I agree it's a nice thing to have, but is not needed as I see many forums using a basic pre-made theme, and they all seem to be doing fine

 

Ya, and sometimes with a customized skin, you'll run into loading problems with users who are still on dial up - depending on how graphical intensed the skin is.

 

Yea its great for branding, but as mentioned numerous times it a want. Forums will do just fine without them..

 

Need to begin with. New site, new look. That's what people want to see.

 

Well, fresh content is what people usually want to see, right? But I agree with you on having a fresh look - but without content, what are the looks for?

 

I have always thought it was the content not the style that mattered. Of course going with the preinstalled theme is a big no-no.
Of course your never going to make everyone happy, so its a matter of find the right one to begin with.

 

Well content is important, but you have to have a perfect style too.. probably back in the day styles werent looked at but now they are so its best to have everything setup perfectly.

 

Well, I think it's more of a want. I would love to get one, but they cost $350 for IPB so I don't see that happening any time soon.

They do look very nice and make your website stand out though.

 

This.

I think a lot depends on the niche too, if your particular niche has a lot of the same styles, a custom style certainly isn't a bad idea but sometimes, it isn't really needed.

 

That depends on the audience. If its something like a cooking related forum, a forum for local group, etc; most of the members won't be vising many Forums, and chance of them seeing the same theme used elsewhere is less.

But for Forums like admin, webmaster, promotional, gaming, etc; your members will visit a lot of Forums, and having a custom theme can attract them.