Guilds: a similar look

[Justintime9]

This has been bugging me for awhile now, and I'm not sure if it's just me. The guilds are supposed to be like united, like different branches of a tree, but the websites look so different! I like GoW's website the best, but GoMa just doesn't have the same theme, I mean, why can't they have the Maintainer symbols that were in the Maintainer's pub, on their site, like this one? and give it the GoMa color scheme, instead of a single Maintainer's themed title, and the rest is different. I don't think the guilds can be truly united unless the follow a pattern. What do you guys think?

[Paradox]

I would personally love it if all of the Guild sites shared a style.

But it's never going to happen because other guilds have specific things that they use their styles for. GoW uses phpBB3, GoG uses IBP, GoMa uses phpBB2(?). None of those forum styles are compatible with each other.

[andylegate]

That we (The Maintainers) like how our Forum and web site looks, thank you very much.

Being united doesn't mean we all have to put on uniforms and look the same. Being united is about working together and cooperating.

Dictating that everyone should look the same, stiffles creativity. As a Writer, you should be sensitive to that. We decided not to use the old D'ni symbol for Maintainers as we're suppose to be the Modern Day Maintainers, so we use a different symbol, instead of the "All Seeing Eye" symbol. Our new symbol is of gears meshing to show cooperation and working together.

[Tweek]

Back when the guilds were first coming around I had an idea for a guild.org idea where the guilds would have a subdomain (like writers.guild.org) and would share similar site layouts just in different colours...I'm weird about organization like that.

Part of me would still like to see such a thing, part of me likes how things are now.

[Jishin]

What Andy said. And I definitely want to put the stress on the idea that we are the new Maintainers, not the old ones. We are not the all-seeing eye, watching your every move and ready to zap you off to a Prison Age if you mess up. We are your friendly neighborhood helpers. We help out, we work with people and with the whole community. (Pay no attention to the suspicious linking book in my back pocket, now. )

Hence the redesigned symbol ... which honestly, I think is Really Darn Cool. It not only pays homage to the D'ni history of the Maintainers, it extends and broadens our guild into today and into its new role.

(Edit: and honestly, no offense to you guys, I really don't want our site to look like the Writers'. I find the white text on black to be very, very eyestraining, which is why I don't spend a whole lot of time here.)

[Justintime9]

Hmm... I guess it's a matter of personal preference. I personally find the GoMa to look rather unprofessional, I mean, like on the home page, the title at the top could be alot bigger, but rather is small text in a corner, leaving a bunch of empty space. On the right, the links seem to be centered incorrectly, and... I dunno, perhaps I'm spoiled by how awesome GoW looks, but I think GoMa could look alot better. GoC doesn't even have their guild symbol as the theme, and I really like how their symbol looks. Now, I'm not saying all the sites should look the same, but perhaps the same design, like, if the guild's colors were green and purple, the title would have the design, and the rest of the site would be green and purple. What do you think?

[MustardJeep]

Justin there is only one true rule in life, and that is "There is no one true way".

If you want a website to change knocking it is a very poor way of making that happen, might I suggest you change tactics and create some demo pages in themes you feel look better? Websites reflect the tastes, preferences, and skills of the people that make them personal preferences or no I think it was wrong of you to take the tack you did.

[Corvus]

I had a detailed post in mind, but then I thought: hey, that's our forum and site, we like it and I don't care what Justin thinks about it.

[MustardJeep]

Corvus!

[Tweek]

I think if I was going about giving the guild sites a unified look I'd use a completely new design and not one already in use.

Personally I like the Maintainers site, it's maybe a little wider than I would have made it but that isn't important (oh btw your link to the forums on the top navigation bar doesn't work).