Pre-Made Themes Debate

[Joshua Farrell]

A Pre-Made Theme is a template that has been pre-designed for a forum software; often including colors, a banner, gradients, post indicators, menu buttons, specific coding ,etc. Design Forums and some websites offer these pre-made themes/skins for free for users to use on their forum, or they could be purchased at a certain price, based on quality and features.

So, what do you think of using pre-made themes?

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One side of the coin can say they are good for members to use. Not everyone knows how to design a forum to look a way that they want, or they simply may not have the time to do so. Some people like to use pre-mades while they learn how to use and edit coding, and learn how to make graphics in an image editor. Others simply see a pre-made they like, and want that look for their forum.

Pre-mades definitely are convenient, and there are many good looking pre-made themes out there to be used.

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The other side of the coin, is that when using a pre-made theme you loose the originality that a custom design would bring. If you use a popular theme, then your board may look like dozens or hundreds of others, therefore it may not appeal as much to guests visiting the forum who may have seen that theme before.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you recommend them, or not?

 

[Jayson]

A pre-made theme with an original logo could be enough or you could do more drastic changes to a pre-made, turning it into something totally or almost new.

 

[Nous]

I personally prefer doing drastic changes to a premade theme, that just makes the community more unique. The more changes you keep making, the more recognizable your community would become.

 

[Ash]

I like using pre-made premium themes because they are well made and just cheaper to buy. I then like to customise the themes so it looks special and it's slightly harder to tell what pre-made theme was used.

 

[Nous]

Yes, this is indeed the cheapest way to make your community look unique. If not, custom themes would cost above the $200 to $300 mark, some might even quote you a few $1000 to do it.