Membership Impact of Template use on Membership

[SoulsRPG 15]

I gotta say, I love post templates (at 'Souls, we usually call them graphical tables, or just tables).  When I first started roleplaying on a forum, it was one of the things that attracted me to it (I'd never seen graphic tables before, and thought they were awesome!)  Nowadays I don't use them that much just because it's easier, but I still like their look.  I do agree that they should be highly legible if you are using them, however.

[Kittenmitten 40]

I used to use them. I would spend hours poring through templates on various resource sites, then hours more getting the colors perfect, and finding and cropping the perfect picture, and going through every song I know to find the perfect lyrics. Every character had their own, and they were so pretty. But holy ponies that got to be so much work. I don't bother much nowadays. There have actually been a couple people who DID use them, but who used ones with TINY goddamn text, and I RP with them as seldom as possible because I just don't want to strain my eyes to read their post. If a site REQUIRES post templates, I flat-out will not join, unless they provide one and the one they provide doesn't make my eyes bleed.

 

There are a couple I have that were custom-made for me that I still use, though. That's mostly because I RP those characters with the person who made them, and I'd feel like I was being ungrateful if I didn't <_< (Also they are so pretty omfg <3)

[jenneral_jennson 154]

Hate templates to be perfectly honest. I used to use them and then I realized I was spending more time looking for that perfect one than I was actually writing. Plus if you’re playing with someone who gets deleted most of the time the dohtml gets kicked and then you’re slogging through god awful amounts of code to get to the words. That being said there is one that I will use if I do and it’s extremely basic and only a column without images or fancy text (small font sizes.. stop it no one likes it).

[Roshanri 0]

I personally really enjoy templates and boxcodes on forums, though I have never been a part of a site that actually required them. I really enjoy the aesthetic of the codes, and a few of our players really enjoy making them so I am more than happy to oblige them in providing them the resources to do so. The only thing that I cannot stand is if the color of the background and the color of the words themselves clash. Reading white on yellow, or red on blue is just a pain in the butt haha. That and overly large header or footer images that take attention away from the writing itself. 

 

I am more likely to go to a site that uses templates and codes, but if it is a requirement I would probably not join. I enjoy the option to make my posts more colorful or thematic more than actually having to do it every single time. 

[Raven 18]

I hate post templates. They never work well on mobile (I usually write posts on mobile, then transcribe and post from desktop), I struggle with attention, so having colorful everything all around the post makes it incredibly hard for me to concentrate on the writing. Plotters and want ads templates are great. For posts, they are not necessary. There are a few members on TNI who use post templates, and whenever I thread with them I ask them not to use templates in our threads.

[Suzi 20]

As a basis, everyone on our site uses a basic code embedded in our site (it's not even a rule, more of a preference... I like consistency). It is a simple black box that surrounds the post. We feel it keeps the site looking neat and polished! We do *allow* Dohtml on our site, and sometimes people use it, but they often find their own templates and use whatever they prefer. It is in no way compulsory! 

 

For our application for example, we have a template using bb code, and a template using dohtml, it is up to the member which of the two they would like to use!