Current Theme Status - as of this post,
The current status as of this post of that the theme we are using is heavily bugged with the responsiveness on mobile as outlined in the site and layout discussion thread.
I have done what I can to fix some issues and to implement missing features with the emerald theme, but at the end of the day this is just working around the core problems of the responsive design.
The theme is still table based instead of div based which means it's not as fluid as it could be, however there are various fluid designs and styling for tables that one can use.
While there is still a lot more I could be doing like polishing and fleshing out the user navbar I added, adding the info to the profile side box, adding the dedicated latest threads and new post pages the theme lacks and other things, however given the current major bugs with the responsiveness and my own skills to fix a out of the box broken theme, it is not worth my time and effort to implement and fix and add more things in other areas, especially if we decide to use a different theme.
I have provided our theme as it is to the developer in hopes my changes and fixes will make it to a new version and help spark some interest with fixing the responsiveness and bugs.
However the developer has expressed interest in moving on from this theme.
Also from what I have seen the developer only accepts discussions about his themes on his own forum which ironically is also running this theme, he has also locked down any discussions, feedback and bug reports under ongoing paid subscriptions.
For now I am looking around to see what other themes are out there, though currently I'm not having much luck.
While I can understand the concept of paid themes, with the variable nature of a forum with ongoing changes in the design as well as themes being user made, a lot of themes never get fully finished as we can see here and paid themes may not get updates especially if the developer doesn't have time or moves on from theme designing.
So if one went a paid route and the theme breaks and the designer has moved on or is no longer supporting that theme anymore, a forum owner may end up in the cycle of paying everytime the theme needs a update or change.
For our site I want a find a properly working base theme by someone that is committed, that can be overhauled in house by our members to become a personal tailored professional theme for our site.
As for the forum software MyBB is free software which suits our current purpose and initial growing, however things like the base theme in design and other things could be cleaner to a more professional standards such as other software like xenforo.
This is for the other discussion topic.
If anyone wants to help look for any suitable responsive MyBB themes please feel free and I'm open to suggestions.