I don't think the code base is the problem, as I showed we already have every thing it needs to design better themes.

It's just that programmers are not designers!

Me for instance don't feel qualified to think about colors or rounded corners.

Probably just hiring someone would do.

If I was forced to build a design, I'd probably just steal colors and fonts from StackOverflow. (At least for a start)

Regarding better responsiveness and more intuitive handling of the user interface, this could be fairly good achieved with some additional JS without even touching the code base.

I can partially agree. The code base has some pretty deep problems like encoding handling. And the layout is anachronistic. This seriously compounds many improvements. Sure they are still possible, but a mountain of spaghetti and inclement weather ensues.

I use tobyink's style sheets quite happily.

Update: oh, my real point stands. I don't complain specifically because I'm not willing to fix it. Volunteering others for work is terrible etiquette.

Problem is we are discussing (at least) three different questions here

a) Design

b) Usability

c) Cleaning up / Modernizing the code base

Regarding...

... a Design

Most visitors here are passive and silent and just read. And IMHO is PM alone responsible for a huge part of Perl's web presence.

So improving the design should be priority, and something like TobyInk's solution proves that it can be without changing the code base (even with a responsive design for mobiles).

... b Usability

Toby's solution is also changing the UI somehow, this by parsing and relocating buttons and menus.

And I agree that this could be facilitated by changing / adding some CSS classes. But this too can be done without revolutionizing the code with just some little patches. °

... c Modernizing

In theory the migration to a new code base with real MVC separation (Catalyst, Mojolicious, ... ) would be beneficial, but I don't see this happening soon (or rather never). ²

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
Je suis Charlie!}

update

fixed "mobile" typos

footnotes

°) I'm already using several private nodelet hacks to improve my mobile experience

²) Probably you are aware of problems I don't know about ... (for me this looks like a Perl6-like generation project).