C&C4U VS H5 Network

Thank You Bejay 😀 Glad to meet you 😀

fiona1964, Thanks for the vote 🙂 I hope you enjoy the forum.
 
C&C4U Awesome background and easy to navigate. Your theme uses a black internal boarder thus is works with the red on red.

H5 Network, I really wanted to see what you had but the board kept telling me I needed to join so it seems guest access is limited.

So to be fair to both, i.e. I could not see the content on one. I voted on look alone. C&C4U has a background that draws you in and blends with the overall them of the board. The only reason it works is the internal theme black boarder of which allows the theme itself to pop out from the background

H5 this is my opinion only, others may not agree. Your site is very blue. so the background in my perspective does not allow the theme to pop out at the user. I know my board got dinged for that sometime back so I changed my background to allow for the appearance that the pages pop more.

Both boards are approaching 200 members, both boards appear to have a dedicated Team.

Disclosure Statement: I am not a member of either board

Side Bar: I was asked why I put a disclosure statement? I do this because when I vote I want my vote not to be influenced by friendship or membership but solely based on the site itself.
 
You can see alot of content, and discussion without membership. However we protect a good part of the major resources and chats of our members by forcing membership 🙂 I feel you didn't actually take the time to look at it.

And from a designers perspective, I'd say that having blue only is good as long as you mix in other colors. A major mix of colors is a no no. You see H5 has blue as the main color, with small amounts of colors blended in.

Another perspective of yours that I disagree with is your view of the background making forums "pop-out". That may not fit many forums. And if you are not careful with the poping out technique you can end up annoying your users with too much "poping out." We're a design forum, so keep in mind that the forum doesn't actually need to pop out of the background. Our style is a relaxing one, where members can spend long comfortable periods of time,reading, posting, and viewing our resources 🙂

And no offense to C & C4 but it's whole design doesn't blend in. Not only does the red burn your eyes, the rest of the forum just jumps at you. And to make it worst, nothing blends in or flows.
 
Good points and I respect them. This is why it's only my opinion far as how I experienced each site. It all boils down to how a user sees it and you make a rational/logical rebuttal. For me, given this was simply a vote for the best as a potential member (recall I am not a member of either). I looked at it for which one I would join from an initial quick look and as stated I based it on my initial perspective. I did only spend 5 to 8 min on each site. I did click numerous topic areas on your site and the site kept asking me to register, perhaps there was a site issue at the time I looked at it. This is why I did not really focus on content in my vote, I wanted to be fair so I tossed content out of my consideration. For me C&C4U really has a great looking forum.

I just tried again and clicked several options at random from this link http://h5network.proboards.com/index.cgi This is the message that comes up: "Error: You must login to access this area. Please login below, or register for an account".

These links let me in after I started at the top and worked my way down:
http://h5network.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readymadeboards
http://h5network.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=codersdisscussion

But as a first time visitor having to click all those to find one that will open is a draw back, IMHO.

When I did my first look I clicked on several that I wanted to see and they did not open. Having simply started at the top and working down I did find as mentioned above, ones that would open.

You are right, some forums do not look well with pop out themes. In my review I did state that it worked for them given they had a black border around the theme from the background which broke it up. One other thing I have found, color and look depends on the type monitor you have.

Both sites are deserving of good marks and needs improvements. As I have learned/been told, "no site is perfect", if that were not the case then we would all be number 1. Again, I am but one perspective and it looks like your site has perspectives that support you very well. Keep up the good work.
 
Anyways. Thanks for your concern 🙂

However there are a few easy things that you missed out. First off, you keep saying it's hard to find the boards viewable to guests. Well if you look, the boards viewable to guests are easy to find. The non-viewable boards are blank towards the right. Very blank. But for the viewable boards you can see the last posts 🙂 I found that very ironic for someone who likes things to pop out :lol: Anyways those boards won't do much for guests anyways. So that's why they are hidden for safety 🙂

I'm not trying to offend you 🙂 I appreciate your time. But I really think you should check out the basics of forums a bit more. For example the Last Post only seen to guests is very very clearly known across the web. Blending, and flow (using similar colors) is a important design technique. And although I respect your perspective greatly, not many people want to see their favorite forum pop out if they were to look at it alot.

Once again, i respect your vote, but Alot of things say that you really didn't pay much attention 🙁 You said both boards are approaching 200? C & C4 is approaching 200 while we're headed into 400. There's a major major difference in posts, and maybe even activity. I think you just jumped and decided that both activity is the same, let's judge the design. And the only professional design the C & C4 forum has is the background... And even that doesn't blend in.

My conclusion? You basically, took a very quick stroll on both sites. Your mind found one more appealing and you tried to justify it 🙂

I hope I haven't gone too far in explaining. lol . I think you'll take your own advice of nothing is perfect, and try to improve your judging 🙂

Regards,
Rick Ace
 
Thank you for the reply, I found out why I could not see some of things you mentioned, it was not because I did not take the time to look. I work behind several firewalls and the place I work restricts flash, youtube etc. When I got home and looked at what you pointed again I could see those functions. Rest assured it was not because I did not look. I did make a mistake on the membership that is clearly an error on my part.

You have not gone to far, in fact you offer a great diplomatic and professional defense of your site. Pleasre trust I did look, and I will no longer make a review on my work computer because I can not see the full functionality of what is offered on the sites.

Please understand my vote still stands but I do concede that I could not see things as result of rest of a technical issue not one of rushing. I would not rush to make a vote. This is said I did state how I voted and it was on look of the site not content.

For me, I simply like the look of the other. Far as content I think the two sites should not have been pit against each other. You are two very different boards. I see this a lot in the competitions. I think gamers will vote for the gaming site and coders and developers will tend to vote for your site. It would be neat to have your site go against a similar site but as the rules state here, once you accept the challenge anything pretty much goes.

Again, your defense is accepted and well stated I hope you accept my reply in kind.

I myself put my site in the competition and request a music forum to music forum challenge . I also know I may be waiting a while so as others have done I may simply go against a site that has nothing to do with my site area, but that is the fun of it to some degree.

Happy boarding and hope things keep going super for your forum.
 
Ah Thank You 🙂 I apologize for my judgment of you rushing. I think what mainly took me to that point is the member count you gave. That was a major error, and sorta backed my conclusion lol. My mistake then 🙂

I agree with you that Gamers will vote for his site while non-gamers might vote for mine. I am a designer (and I code a bit), so I took that view. I'm not much of a gamer 😀

And I like how mature this conversation went. I expected a person to just blast out and argue. Instead we understood each other, and both learned alot. This conversation serves as a prime example of hope, trying to understand each other, and being kind, goes a long way. 🙂 And same to you 🙂
 
Nah but I was. I had forgotten about this topic. So much that I toughed when I clicked on it and got to page 2, I toughed Agentmanatctu had created a battle topic for C&C4U to be battled by a other site. Without that I knew it, and that all the discussion here happened thus without I seen it until now. Surprise it was

Seems it was just my old request topic for forum battle when I clicked to page 1, from there the confusion. I am happy it go to a In progress mode.
 
Congratulations C&C4U, you've won! You both did great, but this battle is finally over.
 
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