Coding Light Skin on a Horror Site?

[Uaithne 543]

Hey guys, what do you think having a light skin (namely, black and white) on a horror site?  I'm not talking flowerly purples and pinks and whatnot, but just something that isn't strictly dark.  I really have my eye on this skin here but I don't know if it would be wise to use a skin with so much white.

 

Alternatively, I really like this dark skin but I don't know if it's too monotonous.  I have no problem with it, but I know others have difficulty with dark skins.

 

(I only want to deal with one skin at a time.  Too much coding to have two completely different skins, keep them updated with appropriate information, etc.)

[Morrigan 1,826]

Well the cool thing about the way JCink does their stuff is you can have 2 identical themes with different CSS so that all changes made (save for the CSS) will transfer over to the other.

 

That being said I would run a poll in the main conversations forum and ask what people prefer (not based on genre necessarily but overall). For example, I personally love dark themes (go figure right?) because it's easier on the eyes for me. However I know that it's not for everyone. To put this into perspective we PM every new user that joins the Initiative to let them know we have a a light theme in case they want to take advantage of that. As such... Only 13 total members across the site have the Light theme set as their theme.

 

So just choose what YOU prefer to look at over what you think others will prefer to look at. You are going to spend more time on your site than any of your members.

 

@Uaithne

[CovertSphinx 710]

I think it works. The white isn't "in your face blaring", and it reminds me of looking at the pages of a novel: Sleek, Classic, with just enough accent. 

[Gossamer 4]

I think having a light skin on a horror site is a great idea.  While dark colors are more stereotypical of horror, you can get a great aesthetic that still has that unsettling feel when you're using white.  Black and white can be very effective.  You can look at a lot of black and white horror movies for inspiration.

[Josie 198]

20 hours ago, Gossamer said:

I think having a light skin on a horror site is a great idea.  While dark colors are more stereotypical of horror, you can get a great aesthetic that still has that unsettling feel when you're using white.  Black and white can be very effective.  You can look at a lot of black and white horror movies for inspiration.

This, and also a light theme for a horror site would be something new and refreshing. Most tend to go for dark, dark, dark, so you could break the mold!

[Frizbee 14]

I agree with the others. Nothing wrong with having a light theme for a horror site! Personally, as long as everything is easy to read I have no preference over light and dark skins. The only colour schemes skin-wise that put me off are painfully bright colours (rather than just plain white) like bright pinks, clashing purples, neon greens etc.