The orange colour that dominates the forum actually makes my eyes cry because its so bright!
Change it or at least provide another theme to choose in the User profile, it really hurt my eyes and is difficult to read do to reduced contrast.
It is a really stupid idea.
Change the contrast on your screen. The orange is mild-to-dark at best.
Or use a pair of these: 8) 8) 8) 8)
Change the contrast on your screen. The orange is mild-to-dark at best.
Didn't have to adjust the contrast on my screen on the old forum or other forums. The light orange on a light background is totally stupid design. Also, how does one stop the black boxes that appear on the right hand side of the screen and cover stuff up? So far not impressed with the new forum.
zoomkat:
as I mentioned at a different post, I am going to be publishing a version of the template for people to revamp it at their own will. We came out with this design very much in line with the rest of the website, also trying to make it inviting to different types of audiences. I can anyway understand your concerns when it comes to a design not fitting your needs.
BTW, I am trying to read inbetween lines the terms you are using. I guess where you said "stupid design" you meant something like "I would have made it differently", right? Because "stupid" is among the way of describing others' work that I could list as offensive.
As an experiment, you could try making an alternative theme where all instances of #FD6400 are replaced with #00979C — you’d end up with everything orange becoming the arduino teal, along with the existing teal.
A better alternative, though, is to make a “shadow” accent version of the orange, which I would reckon would look like #B74800 — alongside the #FD6400 it would look like an acceptable shadow version of it.
Headline in normal full orange
Headline in shadowed orange
Of course, you can’t just have the shadow accent, you have to have it on the page to juxtapose with the full orange somewhere, otherwise it’s hardly an accent — it’d then become a dominant colour it its own right, which isn’t right. You must still have some elements appearing in the full orange to have the dynamism of the accent palette do its work.
I like it. I think it's bright and cheerful.
it hurts
Well theres your opinion, and theres stupid. Orange on white is the latter. Please consult the many thousands of webdesign books published since 1993. And art design since the 16th century.
Just add more themes. Changing a site just to match a color theme was dumb anyway.
I can see myself using other websites instead of this one. Way to go arduino, you are not the center of the websphere you know.
Looks good to me...
I know that it gave some work, but really, orange and white, thats a lot of contrast..
Cowjam,thats not the stock forum colors...
Its much more like this:
And now, I wont change my contrast to read this forum, that now as a ton of different sections, dont really know why, but now I can burn now my mouse wheel much faster lol, maybe its a matter of taste but I hate long forums, it just seems that each post is a different section...
I'm not asking for something, I'm doing a simple suggestion, and well if people are blind enought to pay for over-priced boards why wouldn't they just use a pretty strange forum.
The side bar is more of a pain, no java script for the forum and its way faster, but I think I will rest my case here and just stop comming here, if a effing blinky is more awesomme than an arduino doing fft bye bye.
Senso (if you are still reading this):
as I mentioned, I am happy to take critique for the design and I am working (I should say we are working) towards getting a forum which design will allow you styling it to your will. I think everyone in the forum is eager to participate and has opinions on how things could be made better, same as you.
I am not diminishing your opinion (uau, I am taking a risk typing that word), nor trying to take away any value from it. I don't think you should feel offended.
However, you are right, the internet is filled up with forums and blogs about electronics and you can make your own boards as well. So, why discuss anything?
FYI I think you should revise you statement about people's blindness regarding the boards. I don't know who you are or what you know about electronics and manufacturing, but I am sorry to tell you are unfortunately not right this time. Anyway that is a matter for a different topic, this one was about the orange color 
/d
lol first forum flame? It's about time.
I like the colours and I think the orange is great.
Orange on White may be an issue, but because the admin clearly does know how web design works it's not orange on green, it's orange on grey. As light as that grey is it makes a whole lotta difference.
Orange on White may be an issue, but because the admin clearly does know how web design works it's not orange on green, it's orange on grey. As light as that grey is it makes a whole lotta difference.
Who knows what is somewhat up for debate. One of natures waning signs is you don't see these types of color choises on the serious professional web sites like Amazon, Ebay, Google, and such.
But is it true to say that nature specifically posts “waning signs” and no doubt matching “waxing signs” regarding good website design? I personally doubt that websites even have a place on the evolutionary tree. Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley never even mentioned website design as either discrete species or even intermediary stages. Perhaps websites are an example of irresponsible complexity.
There is nothing wrong with it.
zoomkat:
Orange on White may be an issue, but because the admin clearly does know how web design works it's not orange on green, it's orange on grey. As light as that grey is it makes a whole lotta difference.
Who knows what is somewhat up for debate. One of natures waning signs is you don't see these types of color choises on the serious professional web sites like Amazon, Ebay, Google, and such.
That doesn't make it wrong, merely different.
I use phpbb for my forums, they have alternative styles. I don't know this Simple Machines LLC, or it's pros and cons, but maybe forum owner does? Is there a chance to have user selectable styles? This orange is really... 
Perhaps somebody writes a plugin for firefox where certain colors can be changed?
Cheers,
Kari