How is it that I have managed to use vim since, err, 1993 or so, without changing all my colors to ten different schemes? Oh, right. Many of the terminals I've used vim on didn't have any colors (other than bright green vs dim green, or the same in amber or phosphor-white).
I will admit that syntax coloring is nice, but more for the checking it provides than anything else. In a column of keyword=value, it's nice to spot the missspelled keyword instantly.
I'm sorry, but what's the point? I'm not meaning to be rude, but I really don't like comments like this one. Yes, some people like you have to work on machines that they have no admin power, or have ancient terminals, but it's 2012. A lot of us on HN do have a say on what runs on our machines (be it our own laptops, or our own servers) and most if not all of them are running OSes no older than a couple years and thankfully all of them have color terminals.
I know you didn't mean to sound like an old-timer dismissing how "kids these days" do things that don't feel your super-nerdy needs, but sadly that's how your comment sounded (to me), so I thought I share my feelings with you. No offense!
I have used this for the past year. I've tried Solarized, Github and many others on the list, but I always return to neverland. It's very dark and with high contrast, but it's also the only colorscheme that doesn't strain my eyes after long periods of coding. Bonus points for being primarily written for 256 color terminals.
It's also one of the few colorschemes that actually utilize _all_ of the syntax groups that vim handles. Many schemes use highlight links, and having differing colors between Repeat and Statement usually shows that the author knows what he is doing.
I'm a big fan of Vividchalk - it has a lot of contrast, and the colors are well chosen. It gives a different color to everything, which does make your terminal look like a chrismas tree light explosion, but that color does deliver extra information (which is the entire point of color highlighting).
I tried Solarized for a short while, and while I appreciate the logic that went into designing it, the lack of contrast made me switch away from it pretty quickly.
I think font choice also has a lot to do with this - some of these schemes look far better with antialiasing turned on, or larger font sizes. Inconsolata 13 pt here.
So you can choose which one you like best, obviously! If I remember correctly, the default scheme on my machine was unbearable for me - it was too "bright".
"Owning" 10 colorschemes is useless. "Trying" 10 (or 20, or 40) colourschemes, though, may be a good idea. Once you have decided which one is your favorite what would be the point of keeping the rejected colorschemes around?
Owning ten colour schemes is like owning ten cars. They look really nice and are fun to show off, but at the end of the day, you can only use one at a time.
I will admit that syntax coloring is nice, but more for the checking it provides than anything else. In a column of keyword=value, it's nice to spot the missspelled keyword instantly.