[Captain Jack]

Hi everyone!

After a lot of discussion, deliberating, debating and other words beginning with d, we’ve reached a point where, unfortunately, we are going to have to remove the colour customisation functionality on TSR (the ability for members to change the colour of the site). I know some of you will be very fond of this functionality and some not happy about it being removed. However, the benefits of doing so are big.

To explain properly I've included a list of the reasons we've been facing:

1) Very few people use colour customisation: only 1.09% of all TSR users who have ever posted use a colour other than the TSR blue (less if you include members who haven’t posted). In fact a large majority of people who use colour customisation revert back to the main TSR blue anyway.

2) Development: we need to be much, much faster at delivering new things and improving existing tools. Colour customisation has been slowing us down significantly. Removing it will mean more mod requests can be delivered, development improvements and new tools will become a reality faster. For instance, we plan to deliver better navigation and introduce a brilliant new content management system to add student blogs, make the wiki easier to update, much more customisation of the site in other ways and more. We can do all of this much faster without the colour customisation.

3) Design: it takes a long time to make a website look really, really good. Making six different versions look good takes even longer and is becoming unmanageable. We have to consider lots of aspects, including how certain colours and shades work with the impact of a page and its content. By concentrating on only one colour scheme we can, like development, significantly speed up our delivery.

4) TSR Brand: the way The Student Room presents itself is really important. We want The Student Room to look amazing (see J’s blog post). We’ve just gone through a six month process to understand “what makes TSR so special” and refine this down into a future direction. A number of you, lots of students and our community team took part in this. A major part of our identity is the way TSR looks and feels. Having one consistent and recognisable look and feel will help TSR be recognised.

5) Accessibility: linked to all of the above, we need to think more and more about making the site accessible in multiple senses of the word. This adds time to design and development and only having one design to cater for will reduce the amount of time needed.

In terms of timings, we plan to remove colour customisation in late August / early September. This is the same time as a planned revamp of the forum page design which makes the standard blue colour look much, much better

Please do ask me any questions and let time for the reasons above to sink in. I hope you can understand the benefits and the need for us to do this. We certainly didn’t make this decision lightly. The advantages are too great though in terms of bringing some really cool things to the TSR community and allowing us to make the site more customisable overall.

Thanks,

Jack

[SirMasterKey]

I'm apart of the 1.09%? Cool.

As much as I'll miss it being in black and red before that I'm sure I can get use to it in blue again and if it's for the best for the site then that's great news.

I just can't decide whether or not to now change back or wait for it to be forced onto me.

[rmhumphries]

(Original post by SirMasterKey)
I'm apart of the 1.09%? Cool.

As much as I'll miss it being in black and red before that I'm sure I can get use to it in blue again and if it's for the best for the site then that's great news.

I just can't decide whether or not to now change back or wait for it to be forced onto me.

Also on black and red. I wonder how many of the 99% are active users, with more than 150 posts and active in the last month?

[SirMasterKey]

(Original post by rmhumphries)
Also on black and red. I wonder how many of the 99% are active users, with more than 150 posts and active in the last month?

Well I'm not on red and black. Just black but was red not too long ago.

To be fair same can be said of the 1%.

I wonder just how many users even knew they could change the setting?

[rmhumphries]

(Original post by SirMasterKey)
Well I'm not on red and black. Just black but was red not too long ago.

To be fair same can be said of the 1%.

I wonder just how many users even knew they could change the setting?

Ah, I think of the black as a 'red and black' theme, as the text colour and buttons are red

True, but you would imagine that more people under 150 posts and inactive people will be on the default scheme, as they may not have changed it if they were not here long enough / when it reset after the last update / etc.

[SirMasterKey]

(Original post by rmhumphries)
Ah, I think of the black as a 'red and black' theme, as the text colour and buttons are red

True, but you would imagine that more people under 150 posts and inactive people will be on the default scheme, as they may not have changed it if they were not here long enough / when it reset after the last update / etc.

Oh I get you, I hardy notice the buttons are red I'm so use to it.

True. I've also decided I won't be one who reverts back willingly. I'll be forced into the change when it happens (just so I'm not in that stat of people who change back anyway ).

[Chrosson]

(Original post by rmhumphries)
Also on black and red. I wonder how many of the 99% are active users, with more than 150 posts and active in the last month?

Oh yeah, good point. I too would like to know what % of active users currently take advantage of a different theme. Because that's the (only?) interesting statistic here and would be better justification for removal of the other colours...

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics."

[kanojyoxx]

But I like the pink theme.

(Original post by Chrosson)
Oh yeah, good point. I too would like to know what % of active users currently take advantage of a different theme. Because that's the (only?) interesting statistic here and would be better justification for removal of the other colours...

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics."

I totally agree.

[Captain Jack]

When we look at the active users, you are completely right that the percentage does increase and our most active users are more likely to have changed their colour. However this percentage is still relatively low and a large number of people who use the colour customisation switch back to the blue. The reason I included the general statistic about members who have posted on the site (not just members who have only registered) is simply to give you an overall picture because all members are important to us, be it highly active and less active.

We are sorry to have to remove something that some people do love but the overall benefit was too great and it will enable us to bring you some great, really useful new features much faster. And this change will come with a refresh to the forum designs to help make them look much better overall

[sinfonietta]

(Original post by drewb)
But I like the pink theme.

Me too. .___. I'd forgotten the default was blue - I set it to pink as soon as I registered. ^^;

Guess I'll just need to add more pink to my profile to make up for it.

[ViceVersa]

This is gonna be so tough on me. I feel sick using any other colour but the purple one. I can't even keep any other colour for more than five minutes, they're all so wrong. Can't we just keep the purple one at least?

[Sgt.Incontro]

Another black and red here.

Understand the reasons for trying to rid of so many different schemes, but the stock blue one sucks to be honest... (Just my opinion.)

Maybe TSR should keep blue as the theme, but with a darker blue?

Light blue

[ViceVersa]

(Original post by Sgt.Incontro)
Another black and red here.

Understand the reasons for trying to rid of so many different schemes, but the stock blue one sucks to be honest... (Just my opinion.)

Maybe TSR should keep blue as the theme, but with a darker blue?

Light blue

Yeah the blue's like the worst one.

I'd be happy with darker blue tbh...this shade of blue's just not great.

[Stiff Little Fingers]

(Original post by ViceVersa)
Yeah the blue's like the worst one.

I'd be happy with darker blue tbh...this shade of blue's just not great.

I disagree - the green is

However, the blue is also hideous.

[bytail]

(Original post by Alofleicester)
I disagree - the green is

the green is fabulous! TSR just looks wrong to me when it isn't green.

[ViceVersa]

(Original post by bytail)
the green is fabulous! TSR just looks wrong to me when it isn't green.

I myself have to actually agree with him when trying the green out today. It's actually worse than the blue and that says a lot! They should both be kicked out

And I actually love the colour blue...but this shade just sucks...they should just change the colour to a darker blue tbh.

[bytail]

(Original post by ViceVersa)
I myself have to actually agree with him when trying the green out today. It's actually worse than the blue and that says a lot! They should both be kicked out

And I actually love the colour blue...but this shade just sucks...they should just change the colour to a darker blue tbh.

You're both insane But yes, the current blue and orange combo isn't great. What is it with social networking sites and the colour blue anyway?

[ViceVersa]

(Original post by bytail)
You're both insane

But yes, the current blue and orange combo isn't great. What is it with social networking sites and the colour blue anyway?

Each to their own

No idea

[Stiff Little Fingers]

(Original post by bytail)
the green is fabulous! TSR just looks wrong to me when it isn't green.

The green is

Regardless, we can agree the default blue is ghastly?

[secretmessages]

I don't particularly like the blue either, but don't forget this part:

In terms of timings, we plan to remove colour customisation in late August / early September. This is the same time as a planned revamp of the forum page design which makes the standard blue colour look much, much better

The new blue is a lot nicer. It's the same sort of shade, but it just works a lot better and is much easier on the eyes. Wait and see, hopefully you'll be impressed