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First off, congrats to Nate and the rest of the staff that worked really hard (in their spare time, mind you) on getting this new skin pushed out. It wouldn't have been possible without great cohesiveness and teamwork. Good job guys. 
Nate did a superb job of capturing the tone and theme of the old forums while still giving us a contemporary feel to our favorite website.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Do not be taken aback when people get defensive or unsettled when you let it be known that you do not enjoy the product of their own hard work. Many hours went in to creating this skin. The staff as a whole put in our thoughts and concerns to Nate about colors, styles, and buttons. You do not have to like the skin. Certainly, Nate and I are open to criticisms of the skin overall. Try to be as descriptive about what you do not like about it, and we will take these statements into consideration.
There is a difference between "bland" and "warm", the latter being the feeling Nate was targeting in his overall design. The skin creates feeling of warmth and invitation. Muted colors tend to evoke these emotions. The few hints of brick red and even subtler hints of yellow spark the more feelings of flare and zing that a few members seem to desire in a site's design.
And hey, we may even have a way for more members to voice their opinions on the skin soon. We know a bunch of you guys are really talented, so why not take advantage of that?
Let's all be respectful. People worked hard on this, and we welcome criticisms that are thoughtful rather than just provoking.
Nate did a superb job of capturing the tone and theme of the old forums while still giving us a contemporary feel to our favorite website.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Do not be taken aback when people get defensive or unsettled when you let it be known that you do not enjoy the product of their own hard work. Many hours went in to creating this skin. The staff as a whole put in our thoughts and concerns to Nate about colors, styles, and buttons. You do not have to like the skin. Certainly, Nate and I are open to criticisms of the skin overall. Try to be as descriptive about what you do not like about it, and we will take these statements into consideration.
There is a difference between "bland" and "warm", the latter being the feeling Nate was targeting in his overall design. The skin creates feeling of warmth and invitation. Muted colors tend to evoke these emotions. The few hints of brick red and even subtler hints of yellow spark the more feelings of flare and zing that a few members seem to desire in a site's design.
And hey, we may even have a way for more members to voice their opinions on the skin soon. We know a bunch of you guys are really talented, so why not take advantage of that?
Let's all be respectful. People worked hard on this, and we welcome criticisms that are thoughtful rather than just provoking.
I appreciate all the work that was put into this, not only by you and Than, but also by the staff members that participated.
While I understand the effect that was trying to (and, in part, was) achieved, I don't think it's a particularly fitting one for this site.
I'm a little surprised that muted blue and grey were considered warm and inviting, as blue is generally described as lower in temperature. And there doesn't seem to be too much grey in the skin anyways, so there isn't much of a problem there.
I'm inclined to think that red, orange, yellow, and maybe even violet are the definitively 'warmer' colors. Though, I can't really decide since part of the inspiration for this theme was to stay true to BZPower's original forum design, which incorporates mostly blue and grey.
But if we think about inviting colors, I think darker shades of any color can seem very inviting. More so, perhaps, than the simply muted tones. A blue like this is just as inviting (but obviously not as warm) as a red like this.
So yeah, maybe some consideration could be made towards the coloring. That's my only problem with this theme. That and perhaps the gear icons, since they didn't look like gears to me until I read that they were supposed to be gears (but maybe that was on an individual basis).
-SK