What website has the best looking layout for thier forums?

[Sweetfeld28]

I recently was on slipstreamx.net's forums, and i would have to say that they are the best looking forums. The design, and layout, is excellent. Take a look:

Slipstreamx (http://www.slipstreamx.net/viewthread.php?tid=2891)

[edesignuk]

There is a small possibility I may by biased here, but I think these (http://www.notanotherforum.com) take some beating! :D

[stoid]

I dunno, the slipstream forums seem too busy. There's a lot of extra stuff in there and it seems like the discussion is almost taking second importance to it all. That's one thing I like about www.macrumors.com and www.NotAnotherForum.com , they don't have all those extras thrown in there getting in the way of the threads.

edit: besides the logo at www.NotAnotherForum.com is bitchin' as hell :cool:

[Sweetfeld28]

I dunno, the slipstream forums seem too busy. There's a lot of extra stuff in there and it seems like the discussion is almost taking second importance to it all. That's one thing I like about www.macrumors.com and www.NotAnotherForum.com , they don't have all those extras thrown in there getting in the way of the threads.

edit: besides the logo at www.NotAnotherForum.com is bitchin' as hell :cool:

don't get me wrong i like macrumor.com's forums, but it isn't as visually pleasing as the slipstreamx forums. however, i agree that slipstreamx's forums are kind of overwhelming.

[edesignuk]

however, i agree that slipstreamx's forums are kind of overwhelming.
Yeah, I think slipstream look good, but there's just to much of it! Very busy, and loads of forums, it's all a bit much.

[mnkeybsness]

funmac (http://www.funmac.com) has the best look IMO

[Josh]

www.newtiburon.com/forums has the most customized, topic-specific look I've ever seen.

the site is about hyundai tiburons, and the forum replicates the interior of the car identicaly - you can even pick which cd player you use as your avatar.

(the idea is good, but I think the actual graphics could be much better.)

[markjones05]

Macintosh Underground takes the cake.
http://freaky.staticusers.net/ugboard/index.php

[mnkeybsness]

Macintosh Underground takes the cake.
http://freaky.staticusers.net/ugboard/index.php



um... ick :(

[michaelrjohnson]

not trying to be a suckup, but MR's really are clean and simple. i like that. there are many that just try to make up graphically what the site lacks in content.

[Makosuke]

I like the very crisp, low-waste box model of the Slipstream forums, but they're too busy and graphic-intensive for my taste. The flat colorscheme also makes it a bit harder than necessary to distinguish between extra info and the actual posts.

I'm quite fond of the new form design here, but the icons are a little bulbous looking for my taste, and I think the padding in the boxes is a little excessive--seems to waste a bit more space than necessary. This layout also shares some of the lack of definition between posts and extras problem, but it's minor.

[On an entirely unrelated note... they've re-done the Camino interface AGAIN?! How about fixing some of the major rendering bugs instead of the third complete icon overhaul in as many months, guys? (And the new ones are UGLY--I was just starting to get used to the clean grey shiny ones). The new nightly has fixed the addbanner overlap on VersionTracker, anyway.]

[realityisterror]

i like the macrumors forums a lot.
the colors are not to bright and there isn't so much... clash.

slipstreamx is cool looking, but there are too many things on the page.
notanotherforum is okay, but, to me, the colors have too much contrast. they're too... "in your face"

reality

[Krizoitz]

My opinions on these

SlipstreamX
PRO: Not heavy on graphics
CON: Too much of the same color, too many lines, posts all run together

NotAnotherForum
PRO: Great use of color, not too much clutter
CON: Minimum width is rather large, avatars long and skinny

FunMac
PRO: Colors contrast better
CON: Sidebar is cluttered, posts run together, alternating colors?

NewTiburon
PRO: Great use of dark/light contrast
CON: Too graphically intense, doesn't scale well to long posts

Macintosh Underground
PRO: Clean sidebars, colors complement well, aren't all the same
CON: Light text on dark background is bad for anything more than a small logo. No avatars.

Last but not least

MacRumors
PRO: Very clean, seperated posts
CON: Not enough contrasting color, too much white/light space

[Opteron]

Even though noone can read this post at this time

www.popnolf.de
It's my clan sites home page for NOLF

[edesignuk]

My opinions on these
NotAnotherForum
CON: Minimum width is rather large, avatars long and skinny

I'm interested to know exactly what you mean here. Are you saying there sould be an option for the forums only be, say, 600px wide?
As it is you can use the deafult of 800px wide, or use the full screen style sheet which will fit the forum to your page. So if you only have room for a 600px wide page, just shrink your browser window down and the forums will adapt to it :)

[iGav]

The Designers Republic is pretty good...

here (http://www.thedesignersrepublic.com/)

as is Newstoday...

here (http://www.newstoday.com/)

The examples given previously in this thread all suffer from the seemingly de-facto and ubiquitous vbulletin type forum aesthetic, and ultimately no amount of eye candy or variety in colour branding is going to give these sites there own unique visual identity because of the generic aesthetic of the software.

[Krizoitz]

I'm interested to know exactly what you mean here. Are you saying there sould be an option for the forums only be, say, 600px wide?
As it is you can use the deafult of 800px wide, or use the full screen style sheet which will fit the forum to your page. So if you only have room for a 600px wide page, just shrink your browser window down and the forums will adapt to it :)

Take a look at this site for example. Except for posts with graphics in them, or in the sig, you can resize the window and the posts resize too.

[edesignuk]

Take a look at this site for example. Except for posts with graphics in them, or in the sig, you can resize the window and the posts resize too.
At what site? :confused: By the sounds of what you are saying, you like it when the forums/therads/etc fit the window, and my forums allow for this. Just change the style (bottom left of the page) to the full screen style sheet, and you will get the effect you have described :)

[edesignuk]

Macintosh Underground takes the cake.
http://freaky.staticusers.net/ugboard/index.php
That really does my eyes in, I couldn't look at that for long, I'd need glasses before I know it! :eek:

[mnkeybsness]

Macintosh Underground takes the cake.
http://freaky.staticusers.net/ugboard/index.php

now that i look at this again, i can point out the main flaw with this. the text is green and/or greenish, while most of the page is dark blue and purple. that's one of those color combinations that is a NO-NO because it is just hard on peoples' eyes.

[supatekmedia88]

http://www.stereolab.co.uk/forum/

[edesignuk]

http://www.stereolab.co.uk/forum/
IMO the text is far to small, and the green on green is not good, just makes the whole thing very difficult to read :rolleyes:

[mark-uk]

http://forum.yaxay.com/

[SilvorX]

heh just found this thread while doing some searching around on google.

I'm an admin at slipstreamx.net, it has a distinct look, just recently the site changed to a brushed-like look, I've heard some of the colours will be changed soon, but I doubt it. It has a nice feel to it but too bloated (panels), they were originally supposed to be able to be closed, but only IE for win was able to do that... I was complaining like crazy when it happened, but got used to it.

[Krizoitz]

heh just found this thread while doing some searching around on google.

I'm an admin at slipstreamx.net, it has a distinct look, just recently the site changed to a brushed-like look, I've heard some of the colours will be changed soon, but I doubt it. It has a nice feel to it but too bloated (panels), they were originally supposed to be able to be closed, but only IE for win was able to do that... I was complaining like crazy when it happened, but got used to it.

the redesign is better than the old one, but I think that the posts need more seperation between them. To many single-pixel lines. Also the images in sigs is really annoying since one long sig image makes the whole thread really wide.

[SilvorX]

the redesign is better than the old one, but I think that the posts need more seperation between them. To many single-pixel lines. Also the images in sigs is really annoying since one long sig image makes the whole thread really wide.
Ya, i'm liking it more than the old one, the head admins on the site (including myself) all have macs now days :)

I'll write that down and hopefully it'll be fixed, I hate XMB forum though, I've said that millions of times but one of the other admins just wont listen (who is basically just the head admin)

[Dr. Dastardly]

I was always partial to Mac Rumors and MacNN Forums. Nothing to fancy and distracting. I personally find in your face graphics such as SpyMac very annoying just because its so distracting.

[MacFan25]

I like the looks of the MacRumors forums. There aren't too many graphics, and the forums seem to flow well with the rest of the site.

I think that Spymac's forums are pretty nice too, though they do have a lot of graphics. There still seems to be some bugs in them, but I suspect that is because they coded them themselves, and just haven't gotten all of the bugs out yet.

[sealey]

If anyone is interested in evaluating some new freeware forum software that we are currently developing, you may download it from the following site.

http://www.class1web.co.uk/downloads.php

We have a version of it up and running on our site too to post feedback about the software and ask questions.

http://www.class1web.co.uk/forum/index.php

I am also currently in the process of setting up this software on my new Macland UK site.

http://www.macland.co.uk/Forum/

Any feedback would be great.

Regards,

Richard Seale

My apologies for posting this twice, but meant to post as new thread!

[job]

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