Nothing at all wrong with holding this POV (and I greatly appreciate you sharing it in an even-handed way). You are largely right. This design IS very vanilla, which on the face of it, might feel counter-intiutive, considering this is a site largely for artists and creatives, but I have always looked at the RPF as a container for greatness, not greatness itself. It is simply a vehicle for creative people to share their amazing work... and i could keep going down that road for a while, but the other side of that coin is the one you have pointed out very thoroughly; we want the site to be exceedingly nimble, easily upgradable (there is already an even newer version of XF that is even faster and MORE mobile friendly) and we don't want to wait another 10 years before moving to it. This was a VERY VERY complicated and difficult transition and the members have had to suffer through YEARS of a barely functioning site because we customized the last one too much. We don't want to make that mistake again. Those are the real reasons behind the stripped-down approach. With that being said, I am always open to suggestion.
Thanks for reading and replying. I don't disagree with anything you've said, and it's true that the content on the site should be more important than the site itself, which is to say that usability should be prioritized over looks.
As far as suggestions go, I do have some and i'll try to stay objective about it, but ultimately this is just my own preference. I'd like to see a fixed-width layout like the old site brought back as an option for desktop users because it can be more comfortable to browse on certain resolutions and some people simply prefer it. As far as I know, XenForo has a built-in style selector that allows members to choose what theme they see when they're logged in, so it could be added as an option that users would have to manually "opt-in" to and wouldn't affect the default appearance of the site. vB had a similar style selector. Along the same lines, if the colors could be adjusted to be dark / dark grey like the old forum i'd
really like that. Members could choose what they want to use, from the outside the default site remains unchanged, everybody wins.
Speaking a bit more broadly I also liked the old banner because it instantly told you what kind of site you were on, the low-key logo as it is now could be, well, anything really. Could be a cooking forum! I don't think the full name "Replica Prop Forum" is actually written anywhere now, and that in and of itself isn't a big deal but there's nothing in the design anymore that communicates where you are to people who don't already know. I know design is a
lot more subjective, i'm sure there are people who find the new simpler layout refreshing, and you could probably say that the sites purpose is self-evident from the content. Still, I think the arguement could be made that a little personality goes a long way. Consistency is great, as a designer I like when everything has a cohesive theme, but making the design so unobtrusive that it becomes forgettable can be a problem in and of itself.
Likewise I could keep going down that road for a while, but ultimately that isn't the hill I want to die on here. The first two things are, I think, realistically achieveable and would be (maybe) appreciated by a lot of people like me who were more comfortable on the old site.
