I've setup the base vbulletin installation, but other than slapping on the original header bar, I haven't done much with regards to look and feel. Gwen has setup some smilies.

I've done some modifications to the forum software (banners and some other things that aren't finished yet), and have imported the old forum's users and threads.

Before I get too much farther, I'd like to update the look and feel. vBulletin is a double edged sword- it's very customizable, but there are limits on what can be customized.

The easiest thing to do would be to pick a template out there that we could use. We can spend some money, but let's keep it on the cheap- $30-50 would be preferrable.

Here are some sites I'd like everybody to check out:

http://www.thepiratesreef.com/ - nice layout, but text is hard to read. Be sure to enter the Forums and look at the icons with the clownfish at the bottom. It'd be cool if our own buttons had something like this...

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=81 - lots of templates for sale

http://www.forummonkeys.com/home.php?cat=1 - I like Sophist, but the big checks would have to go

http://forum.yaxay.com/showthread.php?t=38702 - cool forum in itself, but wouldn't work for us. Plenty of links on that post


Things I'd like to see:

1) a new header / logo - especially if we can get some with nice corals in the picture (purple acros, etc)
2) still tie back in to the ARC general look and feel - blue colors, easy to read, the ocellaris clown
3) clean and simple. form over function. There are some cool designs, but when you're looking at them, imagine reading them every day, and what's easy on the eyes.

We're using vBulletin 3.5.3 and CMPS for the home-page-to-be (http://www.atlantareefclub.org/cmps_index.php).

Please post any other comments, ideas, websites, skins, designs, photoshop files (!) or whatever you'd like - I'd really like to get some feedback on this...

Nice job on the conversion and import! VB is much nicer than phpbb.

My main suggestion is to keep the pages stretchy (as they are now) so that they fit the browser width for different screen resolutions. I have been on some other forums that are fixed width and they are sometimes hard to navigate.

I would be happy to do a few graphics or even logos. I think that Sarah K. has done a few designs as well. I would like to see a fresh, crisp look.

The stock template (or whatever is running now) seems to be quite good. It is easy to read and loads quickly.

Nice work Chris! :thumbs:

I like the pirates reef site- not hard for me to read.

Hey Chris,

Is it possible to config the forums so it starts paging at 15 or 20 messages instead of 10? If it's an issue with ads, I'd understand but 10 messages per page seems really short.

I agree- I've updated it to 20.

I like it.