"I was saying that THIS version needs changed, on a drastic scale. Its to simple for my liking."

Well, there are two things:

1) The system.

The features are simple, that I'll grant. However, this system offers things that no other system offers - it just presents them in a slightly unconventional way.

Ultimately, there are three system-related things to consider: ease of use, features, and integration.

As for ease of use, the system needs to be extremely accessable. Everything they need to begin interacting should be only a click or two away. I've never seen another forum package that offers that.

As for features, I was not aware of any major features that your average forum provides that we're not duplicating here. If you have a specific feature-related suggestion, please let me know.

The other thing is that most setups completely neglect integration when they're putting together a website. If we were to use another forum package, such as phpBB, here is what would happen:

-> Users would need two logins - one for the main site and one for the forum.

-> We would be unable to present all of our content in one consistant interface.

-> Admins would lose a lot of control and flexibility when it comes to content. (For example, promoting a forum topic to the front page takes a single click.)

-> Users would be unable to reply to other items on the site in a consistent manner. If there was any commenting capability at all, it would be confusingly different from the forum to the main site.

-> Our user base would be completely different from the site to the forum. We would have a number of users who only registered for one and not the other - effectively creating second-class citizens within the realm of the MMN.™ We don't need that kind of rift. (Not to mention that it would be hard to recognize users from one system to the other.)

These are only a few of the problems we encountered when we had a seperate forum. (Does anybody here remember that? Gee, it was such a long time ago...)

So, as far as the system itself goes, I feel confident in Drupal's ability to power social interaction at any level that we feel would be healthy for this community. I'm confident in my ability to add whatever features I feel would be good for the site. Thus, I am not (now, or in the forseeable future) interested in transitioning to another content management framework.

2) The theme.

As for the theme, we've struggled long and hard on it. Believe me, it's not an easy task to create a theme that fits our requirements. Depending on who you ask, we've even managed to scare away graphic designers just by showing them our requirements.

For example, if you make a really flashy, sleek, and eye-catching theme, will all the images take forever to load for dial-up users? Will the page validate as XHTML Strict? Will the overall layout be tableless? Will users who visit the site every day get tired of the theme and find it to be an eyesore? (Yes, the more stylized the theme is, the larger percentage of people simply won't like it.) If your theme is vaguely Sci-Fi, would it go well with an emotional drama? (After all, the Malex Media Network™ has aspirations of publishing all manner of art and media - including stuff that might completely clash with highly-stylized themes.)

So the current theme is designed to meet all of our currently-known requirements by me - a programmer and a musician, not a graphic designer.

I guess it would be alright for anyone who was interested to design a theme and submit it, keeping in mind the requirements I mentioned. Of course, I would be willing to answer questions and etc., but I wouldn't guarantee to use it.

ttyl!

--Alex Markley

And with that, the chubby one became illiterate with excitement.