Or, unless, maybe, some designer somewhere is willing to change the way things are done. <whistle>

Maybe because the limpwristic, OCD & ADD-appealing "web 2.0" crap looks like hammered dogshit?

I really cannot get into the debate of what looks good and what looks bad, but I can say that a site's design definitely impacts the site scalability or on smaller sites: server load. I had always thought web 2.0 was suggested to overall meet these issues, not really how nice the site looked.

Plus, I have a terrible time just choosing a color. :)

I couldn't "like" your post because I liked another of yours recently.

You nibbled around the edges of my point. 1.) Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and 2.) Serviceability, scalability and low server load go hand in hand with simplicity of design and how heavily a given platform is modded, no matter the platform. It is what you make it.

I say bring back the 80's themes or start them.

I think most forums are or should be about content and stability and of course security and loading quickly. I think many forums are over done with too much emphasis on mods and themes. I mean look at this site for instance. It has a nice clean and simple theme but the content is solid and there is a ton of it.

Algore was only starting on his invention of the internet back then. There existed things such as pay phone booths, tune-up places, film developing cubes in mall parking lots, cassette audio tapes and machines, and a plethora of other antiquities now gone the way of the Dodo.:D

Ideas for a vBulletin style in that?

Try this theme.. http://www.trafficunit.com/support/forum.php?styleid=3

I mentioned something about a payphone to my 9 year old nephew a couple weeks ago in a conversation and he asked me what it was. :p Boy did I feel old after that.

Yeah, an 80s forum may be a hit!

Any we cannot forget the hair and make up bands and all the good music back then! I graduated in 86 and I still miss those Van Halen songs! I miss the big cars too! I do not miss the mullet though and at one point I had a tail growing off the back of my head. lol I have not seen anyone with one of those in a long time! i still do not know how one would make a theme though to represent that era but I am all for it. :)

I'll put it this way. Every site is lacking something, and it can be any combination of ignorance, negligence or necessity. It's not right or wrong. It's going to reflect the administrator's strengths and preferences. (And finances. Don't forget finances.) So it will be lacking in areas of design, performance, popularity, consistency or conformance. The only things that are essential are the things that particular admin is trying to accomplish. And it might be different from what another admin wants.

But, again, it's not right or wrong. It's just the way it is. So while you can have a functional, popular board. You could have horrid graphic design. Or you may have solid, innovative styling and minimal activity. I don't think either, or any of the other possible combinations thereof, are wrong. I just think achieving a balance of all it is something to aspire to. I sort of look at it like Walter Disney looked at Disneyland. Every minor detail mattered as much as every major detail, which ultimately contributed to the overall experience.

Well said. I agree 100%.

Some forums fit better with a flashy theme and others can just use plain Jane. There is no right and wrong as you said. It is just about what appeals to your users. On a game site then something flashier may be suitable and on a web dev site simple and plain works. The bottom line though is that a theme alone is not going to make the site no matter how nice it looks.