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Colour is mainly a matter of personal taste, although colours are also tools in the creating of a Mud. In fact, whatever Ozma may think, very few Muds dispose of colour totally.
A fact is that most Muds use colours to accentuate certain things, for instance mobs are coloured differently from objects, exits have a different colour than the room descs, different channels get different colours, or the important things in your prompt are accentuated by colour.
All these things are good in my opinion, and I think only the most hardcore roleplayers are opposed to it.
It is when the colours get 'ugly', (meaning that they clash violently), or when there is so much colour that the intended effect of enhancing the important things gets lost in the blur of different colours on just about everything, that most people, including myself, react negatively.
An example of this is when almost every object in the game has every letter set in a different colour. This serves no purpose except to 'flash in the eye' and as long as it is only used on very few items, it may have that effect. But when every object in the game looks like an overdecorated christmas tree, you lose the 'flash' effect. It's like trying to get noticed in a crowd where everybody else already is screaming at the top of their lungs.
I've actually taken a look at Ozma's Mud, and my impression is this:
A lot of thought and work has obviously gone into the colour scheme there, and although it isn't quite to my taste, I recognise that it is a conscious and consequent design, and not just someone dropping a box of crayons randomly on the floor.
However, the effect of this conscious design is partly ruined by the purely 'decorative' colouring of some, (or most) items. Looking at a player with a full set of good equipment is hurtful for the eyes. Without this overkill on the objects, the colour scheme would have worked a lot better.
And note that I really intend this as constructive criticism, not a flame.
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