The design of a forum is obviously very important, but to what extent...? When does the functionality (ease of use) become more important than looks? Typically, it seems as if a forum's design is the most important to your visitors, but the layout and functions of the forum are more important to your members. I thought of this because we have recently discussed the difference between new and return customers for businesses in one of my classes and how it is usually a better investment to focus on rettaining long term customers than it is to go out and seek new customers. If this is truly the case, then the forum skin might not be as important as some think...since you already have the members, your need to impress members with a flashy skin might not be as large.

Then again, you've got to get those members from somewhere, right? So, my ultimate question is this...Which do you think is a better investment - $300 towards a new skin or $300 towards your current members (via a promotion of sorts)?

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I would say $300 towards obtaining new members actually through advertising and promotion methods. But between the two? At this stage I'd say a new skin because ours is really old and needs work, but otherwise I'd say the opposite. I guess it depends what stage your current design is in!

I think the importance of skin really depends on the type of community. For design related forums the skin is obviously key. It's also important if there is a lot of competition in the market and you want to set yourself apart from competitors.

After that I'm not so sure people really care that much. I've been a part of a number of non -web design related forums and people don't seem to care at all what the forum looks like. Some of them are downright ugly and still attract a lot of traffic. People seem to be willing to put up with a lot if the quality of discussion is good (or if it's the only forum of its kind!).

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Megan
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You make a good point about the skin not really making a difference at all for some forums. In fact, I actually commented on that quite a bit in my article here about modificications becoming overkill. I pointed out the fact that a lot of the largest forums on the net have a VERY simple design. I do attribute part of this to the fact that they have typically been around longer, and when they were created, design was not as innovative as it is today. Today we are in a more competitive atmosphere and must find new ways to gain the upper hand.

You're also very right about the type of forums. Quilt lovers could probably care less about a flashy skin with special features, but design forums on the other hand will need to be impressive to be taken seriously

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My feelings when I visit does the forum look clean and nice.

Is the skin important, not for me, I am more looking for content. My site doesn't have any, due to the fact that most of my members are older professionals and they don't need all the "fancy stuff". I don't have any direct competition (don’t get any ideas!) so no need to fancy it up to stand out.

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Ah' yes, but as you mentioned, you may not already have the members to begin with. Of course if you do then I think the money is more wisely spent toward your current members. If not, then definitely the skin is more important.

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Mark Blair
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I don't think it matters all that much. One of the biggest forums I am a member of uses the default vBulletin skin, but just changed the logo. A lot of skins I see I hate bad enough where I change it to subSilver when I register. I think the default skin is good because it is familiar with many people, however, I also think some default skins like kinda cheap.

phpBB, myBB, SMF, and a lot of the other popular free ones have plenty of resources to find a skin. At least try to change some colors or something to get it a little different, it just doesn't have to be completely different. I do think it's rather important to get consistancy throughout your site, though. If you have a site and a forum, try to get them to match, at least a little.

My forum at www.DomainerZone.com/forum is actually the default vBulletin skin with some colors changed.

I do agree that the default skin can work for a lot of forums, I would just never be able to bring myself to use it in my own forums...especially since my members are so tech savvy and FORUM OWNERS! Honestly though, the only stock skins I have seen that I truly like are the skins for IPB and SMF...I consider IPB to have the best stock skin. I'm not a fan of vB's, it is just so flat and bland

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Some Skins i think are way over the top, some i can understand where they have made it match there site perfectly.

Personally, i would rather see the money go towards a prize, rather than a skin, but at the same time, i hate default skins. for more forums there are alternate free skins avaliable, that still look nice, and my option is if you dont put the effort in to change fromt he default, why are you running a forum.

Overall i think it needs to be done in doses. you carnt spent everything on new members, and you carnt spend everything on your current ones.

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No paragraphed sized response from me here. All I have to say is timing is everything. If the look of you're forum isn't up to par, you probably shouldn't invest too much in advertising.

I think good graphics and good skin is an important fact in a forum. But usability is more important then good graphic. A good skin has both. Just listen to my danish fellow Jacob Nielsen

300$ I would have used for price money. Or some plug ins or modules to my forum. I would never have buyed a skin for 300$ - better to find a cheap or free one and tweak it a little by yourself.