Why vBulletin styles are so 90's style?

[SirPereira]

Hello,

Starting on the vBulletin.org theme, going through the Styles gallery for VB5, I just see a lot of oldish styles. Almost look like 90's websites and layouts.

Is there any valid reason why clean and spaced-layouts aren't being used? Damn, I love vBulletin but with all those awful themes out there it is almost impossible to create an appealing community.

Sorry If i'm being too straight, however I just can't find a reason this is happening.

Am I the only feeling this?

[ForceHSS]

You dont have to use if you dont like you can buy one there are many sites out there that sell them

[SirPereira]

Originally Posted by ForceHSS

You dont have to use if you dont like you can buy one there are many sites out there that sell them

Can you give me some examples please?

I know I don't have to use them, however I would like to, but if they were somewhat cleaner than they are currently.

[ForceHSS]

Have you searched on google yet

[Digital Jedi]

Here's the thing I notice about most styles, on any forum platform, not just vBulletin. And not just free, but also premium styles. They almost always closely resemble the default style as much as they can. And the default style is, well, not really intended to be the best. It's meant to be vanilla.

Scripts are what they are, and you have to work with what you've got. Look at phpBB styles. They all look like phpBB. Look at xenForo styles. They all look like xenForo. That's not to say that this is anyone's fault. It's just to say that to really push the design beyond the limitations of the forum script is a lot of work. For free designers, that's probably too much work for just a freebie. And for premium designers, that's probably less efficient for them to put out and make any money off of. At least to their way of thinking.

And then you have the mentality that your forum should work well before (or instead of) making it look pretty. I, personally, don't agree that either of those elements should be neglected as a matter of good standards. But for the beleaguered admin, he's only going to choose one of those when it comes down to the wire. And I believe this mentality has shaped just how far designers will go when it comes to really pushing for innovative design. In other words, they don't see anyone besides a few like us, prioritizing it. So they don't bother.

[SirPereira]

Originally Posted by ForceHSS

Have you searched on google yet

Yes. A lot of the paid ones are not very pretty tho.

Originally Posted by Digital Jedi

Here's the thing I notice about most styles, on any forum platform, not just vBulletin. And not just free, but also premium styles. They almost always closely resemble the default style as much as they can. And the default style is, well, not really intended to be the best. It's meant to be vanilla.

Scripts are what they are, and you have to work with what you've got. Look at phpBB styles. They all look like phpBB. Look at xenForo styles. They all look like xenForo. That's not to say that this is anyone's fault. It's just to say that to really push the design beyond the limitations of the forum script is a lot of work. For free designers, that's probably too much work for just a freebie. And for premium designers, that's probably less efficient for them to put out and make any money off of. At least to their way of thinking.

And then you have the mentality that your forum should work well before (or instead of) making it look pretty. I, personally, don't agree that either of those elements should be neglected as a matter of good standards. But for the beleaguered admin, he's only going to choose one of those when it comes down to the wire. And I believe this mentality has shaped just how far designers will go when it comes to really pushing for innovative design. In other words, they don't see anyone besides a few like us, prioritizing it. So they don't bother.

A great opinion.

I am using a concurrent board software in another community I've running, I was obliged to make a lot of modifications by myself. I really don't mind doing them, as I program in PHP and do some work in HTML/CSS, however I was just looking for clean themes for a new community, and it is almost impossible to find decent ones without wasting time on "cleaning a theme".

[ozzy47]

Then you could always hire someone to design the theme the way you want it.

[Spangle]

I've seen some great VB4 and VB5 styles, you just have to look really hard for them, Exaltic do some great VB4 styles that are way beyond a default tweak or two.

Them problem is you have to be willing to pay, and by that I don't mean $30 -$50, I mean start at $450 and you can get a really different custom style, it's all down to price really.

Personally I've seen really terrible themes on really successful forums, so a custom theme is no guarantee of a successful forum.

http://www.thefootballforum.net/

http://www.footballforums.net/forums/

Both of those are on page one of google for "football forum" and one is the default with no customisation at all !

[tbworld]

Why vBulletin styles are so 90's style?

Late mid to end of 2000's, but certainly not 90's. This is based on the coding itself.

[RichieBoy67]

The 90's were the best and worst times of my life! I would love to go back so I have no problem with 90's themes.

Personally though I do not really agree that current themes look 90ish. As someone posted above unless you are willing to do custom work or pay big bucks to have it done most free themes will close to stock.