This Forum. Why so basic?

[ANONANON]

I'm a member of many forums and this is one of the biggest yet most basic i've seen. The default blue which which is just vile and if i'm not mistaken, the only way to change it is to user a browser plugin, then you've got no private message system, no custom avatar choice, no extra smilies and the biggest one for me is the no simple way to embed a youtube video. (yes i do know how but what a load of faffing about)

So why is a computer forum that specialises in high end computers and have tens of 1000's of members have the most basic forum out there?

 

[ANONANON]

if you aint happy, there are other computer forums out there. it works and does what it needs to do. we don't need private messaging, we have 'trust', we don't need custom avatars as ocuk use a theme which works well. extra smilies you can add yourself if you so wish.

A choice would be nice though don't you think? I mean, Gmail 'does the job', but it's nice to have the different themes it offers. What's so wrong with giving people a choice. If someone wants basic, then they can disable all the sigs, smilies, avatars etc, and if someone wants it all then they can do so if they wish.

 

[ANONANON]

I do agree that i myself disable sigs and avatars to keep it cleaner but i do stand by my opinion that members should be given the choice if they want all the extras. The main things i would like would be the youtube button in the reply box or better still, make it so the embed button on the youtube site works on this forum. When i first started using other forums, i could just copy/paste a youtube embed code straight into a forum reply box and it would show instead of having to copy/paste half a code making sure you don't miss 1 character out or it won't work.

Also, going elsewhere or creating my own forum isn't the answer. I don't want to, i like it here, i'm just asking that's all. No need to become so defensive.

 

[ANONANON]

Wow, lots of replies, didn't expect so many replies about this subject so i'll just leave this comment here as i cba to quote every question aimed back at me.

Everyone on here seems to want the simplest most basic layout possible but they never mention the 1000's of meaningless sigs and heiracy avatars that nobody takes any notice of. So what if someone gets a different avatar when they reach so many posts. Damn, most people have 1000's of posts anyway, so what difference does a couple 1000 more posts make? Is one supposed to be proud of having reached 'wise guy status' or something? I don't get it.

Why not just abolish sigs and any other type of pointless picture if that's the attitude on here? Will make it even cleaner no doubt.

Also, i don't think for a second the forums are so popular because of it's layout. Come off it! It's popular because it's got the most diverse amount of subjects i've ever seen on forums. The user base is mainly 20-30 somethings who happen to like computers, cars and home entertainment. That's why it's so popular. Who honestly thought when they first saw this forum "Oh, i like how simple looking this is, i'll spend the rest of my life on here" I'm thinking very little people thought that but instead thought "wow, this forum has some discussions on a lot of topics, i'll bookmark is and revisit for sure"

 

[ANONANON]

It's not about being hard, it's just making it easier and simplicity , seriously can't believe how a youtube button is really bothering some members

Exactly. Anything that makes posting easier should be in every geeks interest, whether or not you have to faff about copying half a code making sure you get it bang on and testing it to see whether it works when really it would be even simpler to enable embedding from sites such as vimeo and youtube. Do away with a youtube button altogether and just allow embed code from youtube/vimeo. This worked on my other forums 8 years ago, i mean wtf has happened on here that would disallow something so simple to work?

People really are moaning and being old fashioned just for the sake of an argument i think. Probably the same type of people that moaned when xp first came out I'm sure if this did go ahead, they would prefer it over typing the [youlube] [/youlube] code every time.