I've had some readability troubles with the standard template (in another topic here, the small quote text is mentioned already), so at first I chose another, but that didn't have all the features of the standard template, so I did some custom CSS styling using a browser extension (I use 'Stylish': https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stylish/fjnbnpbmkenffdnngjfgmeleoegfcffe?hl=en).

Here's the code I'm currently using and what it does:


body { font-size: 88% !important; font-family: Verdana !important } // the custom font is quite beautiful, but I found it hard to read, so I replaced it with Verdana
#mainframe { font-size: 100% !important } // I'm also making it a bit larger
.poster h4 { margin-left: 0.75em !important; height: 100% !important; width: auto !important } // this left-aligns the user names with the rest of the poster's info when using Verdana.

blockquote { font-size: 100% !important; padding: 15px !important } // makes the quotes larger

.keyinfo h5 { font-size: 65% !important }  // these two lines adjust the size of the auxiliary info around the post, which is currently quite prominent when compared to the post contents
.smalltext { font-size: 0.65em !important } // it also reduces visual clutter

.windowbg { background-color: #e7eaef !important } // this enables alternating colors for posts. makes it easier to tell them apart
.windowbg2 { background-color: #f7faff !important }

.poster { margin-bottom: 1em !important }    // these three lines move the "edited by" info and the links to report posts to the bottom of the post. reduces visual clutter
.postarea { margin-bottom: 1em !important; height: 100% !important }
.moderatorbar { clear: both !important; overflow: hidden !important }


The overall effect is much better readability, more focus on the post content as opposed to user interface, and reduced visual clutter. The downside is that the new font is a lot less pretty. I'll take it though!

Here are two before-after comparisons:

Before
After

Before
After


I hope this helps someone! And perhaps a few of the changes may be something for the board operators to think about.

I'm not using the standard theme, and in the one I use (Core) the verified checkmarks don't display in the threads, only on the profile pages.

At first that felt like a bug, the more I thought about it though, the better I liked having them only be visible on the poster's profile page (as opposed next to every post they make).

I feel like having them visible all the time promotes a sort of arbitrary caste system (and I say that as someone who would probably qualify for a checkmark). If the point of the thing is to verify that posters are who they say they are, then it shouldn't be necessary to have the mark everywhere they go. It's something people would look up once if they care. By wearing it everywhere, it gains a wholly different effect that I'm not sure is intended, the differentiation between Regular Posters on the one hand and Good Posters Whose Posts Carry Weight on the other—a sort of cliquish, in-crowd distinction that in my opinion potentially does more harm than good.

If there's a problem with people saying they are someone they're not, the mark on the profile page does the job (although even then the absence of the mark says nothing unless there's also a 'verification failed' version).

What are your thoughts?