# Changing the skin



## Tian Zi (Jul 14, 2008)

Is skin the right word?  The default Black back/white text makes me nauseous!  I'm taking -2 penalties all over the place.

feel free to email me at m domezio AT hotmail


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## Morrus (Jul 14, 2008)

Nauseous?  That sounds serious; I'd see a doctor.  

Themes are on the to-do list.

Why would I be emailing you, though?  I'm mean, don't get me wrong, I'm positively _delighted_ that I'm free to do so.


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## andargor (Jul 15, 2008)

Can I has email 2?


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## Morrus (Jul 15, 2008)

U can haz not!


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## HellHound (Jul 15, 2008)

Sad poster is Sad.


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## Tian Zi (Jul 15, 2008)

Great, thanks for the reply.  I'll suffer through the dizziness and headaches... but maybe that is from some of the posts on here!

Looking forward to the old themes.


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## breschau (Jul 16, 2008)

Please hurry. I'd really like to come back to the forum but I can't read this white on black crap for more than a few seconds.

A least default to something that's not painful to read in.


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## Morrus (Jul 16, 2008)

breschau said:


> A least default to something that's not painful to read in.




This has been EN World's default appaearance for 8 years, and an important part of its trade dress and branding.  It's never going to change; sorry.

But we will have alternatives available as sson as we can.


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## breschau (Jul 16, 2008)

Morrus said:


> This has been EN World's default appaearance for 8 years, and an important part of its trade dress and branding.  It's never going to change; sorry.
> 
> But we will have alternatives available as sson as we can.




Oh, I had no idea. Because I changed it the second I logged in as I wanted to actually read the posts instead of going cross-eyed.

Wow, being hard to read and causing eye strain as part of branding. Now that's something to be proud of.

EDIT: If you're on Safari, you can disable CSS by dragging the "Disable CSS in Safari" javascript link on this page into your bookmarks. The page retains cohesion and is also readable.

Simply go to the offending site, and click on the "Disable CSS in Safari" bookmark and presto, readable page.


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## Exquisite Dead Guy (Jul 21, 2008)

I also have difficulty reading the default layout for more than a few minutes before blurriness sets in.  I was fond of the "Player's Handbook" (I think it was called) skin which was similar to the WotC boards.

I know you folks have been hard at work with the upgrade so I'll be patient.


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## Plane Sailing (Jul 21, 2008)

If you are using Firefox, you can use the 'Stylish' plug in to customise the CSS that you see when you visit ENworld.

You can find information about it in this thread http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=233273

I also prefer the 'PHB' style black on light brown look, and this works for me.

Of course, I'll be happy when we are able to have an 'official' version again, because white text on black doesn't work so well on the iPhone/iPod touch 

I hope this helps a little.


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## hewligan (Jul 22, 2008)

Morrus said:


> This has been EN World's default appaearance for 8 years, and an important part of its trade dress and branding.  It's never going to change; sorry.




Morrus - I understand the branding aspect, but I am not sure it needs to be as permanent as you suggest. Take ArsTechnica.com, one of the biggest technology sites on the web. They used to be famous for the white text on black theme, but in 2004 (they started in 1998, so that is 6 years in for them) they changed. On their FAQ at the time they posted:



> Q. Why the white? Oh my eyes!
> 
> A. Believe it or not, many people cannot read the "black" version of the site. This has been the #1 complaint Ars has received since day one. We thought it unwise to continue to use a default color scheme that was driving so many users away. Once it was clear that we could support both, we did, but white will be the default. The black design was also unfavorable to readers in corporate environments, and other places where the scheme sent the wrong signals to bosses and cubicle neighbors.




They offered a black version, but I remember them posting some information a year or so later about how few people were actually using that theme.

So, anyway, the black background, white text approach is probably not what a lot of people come here for, and it is probably not as big a part of the brand as expected. Even if it is, brands can and do change. I know for me, I do get sore eyes from reading ENWorld with the current theme. I used it previously with stealth (or papyrus, I cannot recall the name). I use it less and less each day now, and if my PbF game was not hosted here, I would probably stop visiting.

Anyway, not meaning to be overly negative. I do love the forums here, it is just that I cannot use them at the moment.


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## Morrus (Jul 23, 2008)

hewligan said:


> They offered a black version, but I remember them posting some information a year or so later about how few people were actually using that theme.





Well, to be fair, that's because 99% of people just use the default.  Only 1% of people every used the alternative colours on EN1, so the same reasoning would apply in reverse.

That said, we will have other alternatives as soon as we possibly can.



> Even if it is, brands can and do change.




They do, but not in response ot a couple of people posting on a messageboard (no offence intended).  McDonalds wouldn't change it's golden arches because a half-dozen people said they don't like it - if they ever did, it would be the result of a _long_ period of thought, research and more.  It's not something to be done on a whim, no matter how persuasive one or two people are.


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## Morrus (Jul 23, 2008)

Plane Sailing said:


> Of course, I'll be happy when we are able to have an 'official' version again, because white text on black doesn't work so well on the iPhone/iPod touch





I'd love a mobile/PDA version, too.  It's on the looooooooooooooong list of things to do, but I hope we will get to it.


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## Plane Sailing (Jul 23, 2008)

Morrus said:


> I'd love a mobile/PDA version, too.  It's on the looooooooooooooong list of things to do, but I hope we will get to it.




If I just want to read stuff, the archive version of threads works beautifully on PalmPilot web browsers (like the offline reader iSilo).

The iPhone/iPod touch safari works very well with the site as it is (although you have to magnify it more with white on black than you had to with black on yellow).

Essentially, with certain PDAs it will come free once different skins are here 

Cheers!


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