As the title says, what do you look for in a skin?

Wish I had more to say.

@.@

I look for something that fits the site, that I haven't seen on every second site I load up. For Tally this usually means a nice skin in greens and browns, with a readable font (big enough, with contrast from the background colour). Forums not to wide (which depends on the length/fluidity of the maintitle image more than anything, because anything else I can edit to suit) and of course... it needs to be complete!

Seeing as I skin my own now, it's not such a concern. But it always took me hours to find the Right One. The problem with boards these days is people use the same, or the same looking skins... which is bad for branding. I mean, who's going to remember your board if it looks the same as everyone elses?

Great topic.

• I want to be able to see the text on the background. This means that light-colored font on a light grey or white skin or dark-colored font on a dark grey or black skin isn't going to draw my attention.
• The text has to be reasonable size. I can't stand squinting to see the board; I need to be able to read it by just glancing over it.
• No capslocks on the main page. By this I mean that the topic descriptions can't be in all capslocks. It makes it hard to read.

To sum it up: I need to be able to read stuff. Yep, that's basically it. Fancy text and decorations are cool, too, but my primary goal is reading.

I second all of that. Nothing will make me walk away from a board faster than not being able to read it. I willl likewise pass over a board that is ultra graphics intensive. A great banner is one thing, but an annoyingly busy wallpaper backing the entire siite with abundant graphics in every forum just makes me want to poke my eyes out. That goes for high contrast text on a background as well. I just can't read red or purple on black or blue, or lime green on black.

In short, I like a clean, readable board. I'm there for the writing, not the graphics.

What December said... and the colors should preferably match, or at least not hurt my eyes in any way.

Other than that, I don't care much. Simple is usually the way to go. And I tend to prefer colors that go with a lot of other colors, so everyone's sigs don't clash horribly.

Same as mentioned above: I need to be able to read it. The text needs to stand out against the background and needs to not be tiny. I like my eyes as they are, thanks.

The only other thing that turns me away is a skin that uses obnoxious colors (neon, nuclear green on black, say) that again, hurt my eyes to look at.

Other than that, I could care less what a skin looks like if the site's good.

-Readability: I don't mind if the text is a wee bit smaller than it is here, and I don't mind if the colors of the text and background aren't a massive contrast. I just don't want every word to make my eyes scream (itty-bitty lime green text on a black background? 0.0).

-No obnoxious colors: Seriously, I will immediately leave a site if it makes this entire room light up. I honestly don't want to see anything that I'd find on a default palette of neon colors. Some contrast is good, but I want to be able to stick around a site for a while without having my eyes start to ache (and I have great sight, so I'm not being unreasonable). People need to remember that their members will be sitting in front of their computers typing a post for a fairly long period of time. It shouldn't be painful to look at a site.

-Simplicity: I'm all for pretty graphics and easy-to-find information (that's why I use a simple sidebar), but I don't want to get lost in the unnecessary details. There is such a thing as TOO MUCH when adding notes and graphics onto a roleplaying site. I don't mind having lots of different forums and subforums, but I want them to be easy to find and as simple as possible. If I can't figure out where to post fairly easily, I'm not going to post at all.

-Appropriate style: I really get turned off by a skin that doesn't suit the genre of the roleplay. It isn't THAT difficult to find a decent skin. If the admins don't want to spend a little bit of time to find an appropriate skin, I won't think that they're very dedicated to their site. A black and purple techno-skin has no purpose on a classic fantasy site. I don't mind if the skin isn't full of ornate headers and backgrounds, but I'd rather see a simplistic, neutral skin on a site than one that clearly doesn't fit.

I think that's basically it.

As a professional designer, I look for clean lines and a well-designed document flow. This means I am strenuously against heavy graphics and giant banners made of collages from Vogue shoots; the skin should frame the RP and draw your attention to the story threads, not overshadow them with giant curlicue fonts and grungy brushes. I like minimalism and readability.

All I want in a skin is that it doesn't blind me, it's not too dark (to the point where when you switch over to something even a bit lighter, you have to squint or blink a lot in order to be able to see properly again), and that the images aren't a haphazard mish-mash of whatever. Also, backgrounds need to not be absolutely ugly. I've seen far too many sites with backgrounds that make me shudder; the site would have looked MUCH better with a plain background, or something patterned, but the admin chose a picture of some sort that repeats and it totally clashes with the forum itself. Otherwise, I'm not terribly picky.

1. It shouldn't be completely black. I like black as a color (actually, it's not a color, so nvm) but not as a main theme of a skin. It makes me feel unwanted. XP

2. It should be clean, organized, and easy to read! I like skins that appear soft and pretty, not sharp and in-your-face.

3. It shouldn't be 'crowded.' If there's so much going on that I have to scroll down just to see the first board, then I won't even consider joining.

4. The text shouldn't be tiny, but on the other hand, it shouldn't be huge either. It should be a nice color to contrast with the main hues of the board, but not so completely different that it stands out and hurts your eyes. I don't like white-on-black. I also don't like bright blue on lavender, crimson on lime, etc.

5. I hate big headers. I don't mind the long, sort of skinny ones (750 x 200 is fine), but I hatehatehate ones that are, say, 500 x 350. Yuck.

That's about all... I'm sort of picky when it comes to skins, but I've seen so many in my RPing days that have simply dazzled me. =]

Cal gets a gold star.

To reiterate what other people have already said; first it needs to be legible and easy to look at, then it needs to be clean and maneuverable, and finally it needs to be attractive and tasteful. Taste is beautiful; but gaudy, over-trendy skins that feature models in various stages of listlessness? Not so much.

Hm, well I've designed templates/layouts lately, but I'm not the greatest at it yet, but I will be hopefully.

When I look at a forum's skin, I want to be able to understand what's going on, or rather what the skin is designed for. I mean, say you have an HP forum, but your skin has polka dots on it. Right off the bat, I'm not going to know that its a HP forum until I look around. I want to be able to tell right away what it is, whether that's going by the skin or the banner.

I suffer from seizures, so I have a medical issue as well that comes in to focus when I look at a forum. If something is blinding me, or flashing colors at me quickly, I'm going to close it immediately. I'd rather not induce seizures upon myself just to look at a forum, and an admin should think about all the possibilities BEFORE making their skin.

Also, when it comes to backgrounds, if you're going to use an image, make sure it doesn't repeat badly. I've seen this a lot over on ProBoards and it looks bad, and it unless it repeats seamlessly you're going to see where one picture ends and the next begins. I'd rather just see a plain color like on here, or maybe something that's like a light color under the boards, then two darker color columns on the sides if you really want something different.

The best way to learn how to skin, or rather, what kind of skin to go for is to look at other forums like your own that have been around for a while and take down mental notes. Don't steal their ideas, but rather learn from them, that'll help in the long run.

There is nothing that I hate more than a skin with a banner full of models that has absolutely nothing to do with the game. At least TRY to match the subject matter of your RP, not a farking photoshoot of Lily Cole, Gemma Ward or Adriana Lima.

Also, if I can't read your font, due to it being too small or of some hard-to-read color, that site automatically fails.

Well, I just removed the wallpaper from my skin's background, because it was just killing me whenever I scrolled to the top of my main page.

I'll probably have to replace my banner too.

I've seen some truely awful skins. I just look for something that doesn't make me wince.

*cannot spell awful*

It needs to fit the theme, and not be overly BRIGHT or CLUTTERED. You don't need five hundred blocks with five thousands lines of information. And who clicks all those links anyway? (Unless you make it mandatory)


Keep it simple and welcoming.

georgia + small font size + no contrast will be the death of me.
it's like they are intentionally trying to make the text hard to read.

major turnoff x.x

what I actually look for would probably be at least some simplicity, a gender neutral layout (I hate when it's supergirly and all pink and bright; not that guys can't like pink and bright), and suitability to the site's genre.

Hmm. There's a lot to what I like when I see a skin.

Most of the time, I like skins that someone made themselves. I hate going to a forum and seeing a skin that was used on the last one I'd browsed through. I know, I know, not everyone knows how to code, but... you could try? Or even modify the colours of a skin and credit the creator, y'know? :] It's nice to see people making an effort to make their rpg unique. -nod-

Since I've been working on coding websites for ~5 years now, it comes pretty easily to me, but for those who are just starting out, it's understandable that a premade skin is the only option. But everyone can start somewhere!

• Readability. It's key to be able to read it. High contast, but not blindingly high. I rather dislike pure white posting background since it's... STARK WHITE. And it hurts my eyes pretty quickly. I like grey posting backgrounds. :]
• Layouts that match the header. It's bad enough that one skin is used by a ton of rpgs, but it's even worse when the banner doesn't match it.
• A layout coded by you. Not from a site. You.
• Originality. I love seeing heavily modified skins. Not cluttered, but modified so it's simplified, as is expanded on below...
• Simplified. I prefer having many of the irrelevant options eliminated, so if you're not going to use a CSS class at all, like darkrow2 on IF or IPB (which only comes in handy to sort things on the forum view), use a display: none to eliminate it. Minimal layouts are better than overworked, gaudy ones. @__@; Building on this, keep everything simple, even the coding. Don't use a marquee unless you have to- the movement is distracting when I can see them. Luckily, NoScript blocks most marquee scripts for me. I usually dislike sidebars for this reason; too much clutter.
• A wide area for the forum. It bugs me when the sidebar is so wide that it eliminates some of the width in the actual forum. Having around 500 pixels to post in width is a good thing. :] It's even worse when there's a cbox that uses Javascript on the sidebar, which is blocked by Noscript, and makes the sidebar 50% width. x__x;
• FireFox compatible. It's not much of an issue anymore, but there have been a few forums I've found that tell me to view in IE.