OcUK Theme - have your say!

Avatars related to Computers would be a good idea. FurryLemon has some good points.

Forum needs an up to date look as it does look old and dated. Anyone new coming here may think they have stepped into the 90s!! lol
 
Yeah avatars need to be changed and the ganster ranks because its more male dominant that kinda theme, as ocuk keeps saying no swears as you want it to be family friendly forum, well what exactly is family friendly about ganster obsession someone high up used to have to enforce on the forum so many years ago. That really needs to change imo. As 1 it is not a unique thing to ocuk im sure mobster fan sites have that and 2 has nothing to do with a computer focused forum and 3 is not family/women/child friendly really its more male orientated only.

Case in point about ocuk not being the only ganster avatar and rank forums.
http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php Similar ranks and avatars.
 
SkeeterUK said:
Yeah avatars need to be changed and the ganster ranks because its more male dominant that kinda theme, as ocuk keeps saying no swears as you want it to be family friendly forum, well what exactly is family friendly about ganster obsession someone high up used to have to enforce on the forum so many years ago. That really needs to change imo. As 1 it is not a unique thing to ocuk im sure mobster fan sites have that and 2 has nothing to do with a computer focused forum and 3 is not family/women/child friendly really its more male orientated only.

Case in point about ocuk not being the only ganster avatar and rank forums.
http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php Similar ranks and avatars.
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As has been said, changing from the gangster themed avatars is something that is certainly possible so I don't think there's any need argue the point about changing. What we do need is solid ideas for alternatives so if you have any please feel free to share them :)

As FF has said, we've been noting down everyone's ideas so far so please keep them coming.
 
I wouldn't really have any constructive criticism unfortunately; but I'm curious as to why we have a gangster theme in the first place? Was it simply something suggested in a thread similar to this years ago?
 
It was what the previous owner of the business was interested in and wanted to make a forum theme based on that. Previously before 2002 we had guns as avatars as he has an interest in firearms.
 
Ah so its open for ideas cool. Do ocuk staff themselves have any thoughts on avatars, ranks ideas so we dont come up with the same stuff as you?

I mean computer themed ones seem like a good idea but which stuff. Maybe ranks like PC Master, Console King, Retro Nerd, Just Started Gaming, etc? Or more like Fps Warrior, RTS Master, MMO King, etc? Or more hardware based, like.. CPU Clocker, GFX Tweaker, Case Ruler, etc? Or brands? AMD Forever Club, Nvidia something or other Club, Intel Owner, AMD Owner, etc?

Avatars could be a mix of badges perhaps like intel, amd, nvidia, brands or like i said before show off hardware setups as a avatar rule allowance. Or just random pics of random computer stuff like a gameboy, or a pc, or a video card etc. Or if possible have somesort of custom script that auto creates a pic of your pc setup or something or console setup by filling in your hardware in your control panel info and it generates a image for use as a avatar. Or as i said before go like guru 3d forums with having under your avatar computer hardware specs listed.

Some ideas off top of my head.

About forum looks in general, I would like to suggest the normal blue theme for sure but also please consider one for those people that might be color blind (if needed) im not and not sure if needed for blue themes but you can look into that if you want. What i would like to see is a high contrast theme (black like some already use through stylish addon) as its nice and easy on the eyes. And one that is good for night time viewing in the dark which i think the dark theme does but maybe theres one better. Something that doesnt hurt ur eyes or brightens up your room too much when its night and the lights are off and you have your monitor just blasting light at you, hopefully a soothing light not the very strong blue when lights are off the blue can be quite strong i find. My 2 pence on that section.

Oh and yes i agree about merging some forums. Theres far too many that are similar to others. Like watercooling and overclocking and cooling, these are basically the same thing, all that is needed to differentiate between them is the user to put in the title watercooling as the subject instead of hsf. As a example. VR could be in the Gaming Peripherals area as same thing just put vr in the subject title when making a post. For sale and wanted, all you need is 2 sub forums one for sale of everything and for wanted everything, no need to have types of things for sale separate etc.
 
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Or we could leave it how it is and not have a load of terrible sounding gay titles. :p

Also I'm pretty sure colour blind people can distinguish between dark blue and white quite easily. Even people with monochromacy can do that. ;)
 
Few things which I think would be good to add to the forums....

  • Ability to PM - with highest level Admin having access to view if necessary (in reality this should never need to happen but in certain circumstances it may)
  • Like/Upvotes - as others have said it would be good to just give a like/upvote/thumbs up to a post rather than posting something extra showing agreement/disagreement
  • Ability to "tag" people - same concept as the "paging" mentioned earlier. If we could use the @ symbol followed by the username to tag a person which gives them a notification that someone is speaking to them or wants them to specifically see it would be great aswell.
  • Mobile ready - is what it is, have a mobile ready/optimised site for viewing on phones, tablets etc.
 
please do not change the avatars.

There aren't many avatar themes and postcount thresholds that sit in line with how the forum works. Capo/Associate/Hitman etc

The gangster theme is something that most users on here have a basic knowledge of (i.e. films) even if you've no idea/interest who the actors/real gangsters are.
 
Scania said:
Ditch the mafia theme, the mafia are scum end of, good films or not, I don't see the relevance to a "family friendy forum" it's a throwback to the past and needs changing.

In its place, why not use PC components? - you do sell them after all! - little images of a CPU, PSU, GFX card etc etc
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Thinking along these lines an extension of this is iconic computers through the years - Collosus, Apple 1/2, BBC micro, Spectrum, C64, Amiga, Atari ST etc.
For the console inclined there's also the same option.

It may not lend itself to a ranking system but I'm not sure that's really needed anyway.

It's incredibly geeky I know but hey this is primarily a computer forum :)

Edit: Ha ha, hadn't seen nas' post directly above ;)
 
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FurryLemon said:
Remove all info from under a persons avatar. Someones join date and post count is irrelevant nonsense unless they're one of those 'special' people who think it means anything. Anyone who feels the need to know this can click on their profile info..
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I like knowing how active and old a user is.

Would I click on a link from a user with Join Date: June 2016 and 1 post? Absolutely not.
Would I click on a link from a user with 10000 posts and Join Date: Sep 2011? I'd have nothing against it.

It gives you a little confidence in what they post if you know they're veterans.
 
I do love the forums as they are. The ability to fullscreen YouTube videos was the thing that I thought was lacking.

Other than that, I think some sort of post liking ability would be great, so that you can see the best answer to your question more easily.

Also, be less right wing please.
 
platypus said:
For me, update the software to something not full of holes and leave everything else the same.

I don't like the gangster theme, but can't think of anything else that would be worth replacing it with.

I don't want social features, upvoting, downvoting, rep, karma, likes, flashy things.
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Pretty much my thoughts. WW2 tanks would be my choice for a scheme. Not a fan of +- rep schemes either.
 
Not sure if mentioned but... please hide the quotes as well of people on the ignore list. If I didn't want to read people's **** in their OP then why do I want to see it in the quote box of someone else's reply to them :p

Also would like:

- themes (dark theme especially)
- I quite like the gangster theme/avatar, if we are changing that then I would want to be able to use my own avatar
 
We don't have to change the gangster theme if people like it. I personally don't like it and have avatars and sigs switched off anyway. However if people like it, it will stay. :)
 
Freefaller said:
We don't have to change the gangster theme if people like it. I personally don't like it and have avatars and sigs switched off anyway. However if people like it, it will stay. :)
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I dont think people like it actively, more like unless presented with other suitable options their default answer will be 'we are used to it so why bother changing it'

TBH perhaps this idea need to be spilt out and some form of contest to shortlist potential replacements
Freefaller said:
You can talk about them, the chances of them being considered are more or less likely than others ;)
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Do the stupid posts system - self-moderation at its best...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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