Dirvine

[dirvine.com]

We're constantly trying new things out, and I just wanted to take a step back and see where we're headed.

http://www.dirvine.com

I'm particularly interested in knowing the reason why you guys/gals would or would not want to sign up. Be honest, I really am looking for ways to improve :great:

 

[Fergal]

I've always really liked the appearance of your site and feel it has a lot of potential. If it was my site this is what I would do;

Have less categories.
Reduce the number of forums, by merging them. I feel that having so many forum sections makes your forum a little user-unfriendly as members may not know where is the best section for their post.

That's just my opinion, others will undoubtedly have different ideas.

 

[Migi]

I agree with Fergal. While having many sections to discuss things is good, too many of them can be a turn off. As a new member, I like to check each and every section a forum has and post around. Now to see that you have so many of them, I get instantly lazy to check them all. Sorry about that.

Other than that I like the simplicity of the theme although it feels a bit empty too. And nice work on the activity.

Good luck! 🙂

 

[dirvine.com]

Some good ideas there, thank you Fergal and phio_chan! 🙂

I'm already eyeing the forums I want to merge.. I think dEntertainment and dDiversion would be a good fit.

What do you think about the "d" in front of everything? It stands for Dirvine, and looks cool (me thinks) but would it be a turn off for new users?

 

[Heartless]

Hey Dirvine here is my honest opinion of your site. Hopefully i won't hurt your feelings. I'm just being brutally honest to help you out.

First Impressions

The site looks pretty decent when i first access it. It looks well built up and the theme and logo are bearable compared to others i've seen. It has a favicon, which is a nice touch, a lot of people forget about that.

I'm a little confused about what this pressplay is though. It brings up virtually a blank page with no information on what its actually for, or what purpose it holds. Just a video player. I don't get it. If its something important that fits in with your site, or a feature you really enjoy. At least make the effort to add it to the forums theme, there are plugins and tutorials you can use to do this, at the minute it looks completely out of place.

EDIT: Just noticed the forum at the bottom which does explain it a little more. But i had to scroll all the way to the bottom to find that out.

I don't have a problem with the home link, even though its not really needed because the logo serves the same purpose, but not many experienced forum users will know about it. However some of the other links such as the "new posts" and "awards" are they really needed for guests? I guess the awards can be useful for new members to see, but the new posts doesn't even work unless your logged in.

One thing that always bothers me about forums is them not stating clearly what the site is actually about, what its for and the reason for joining. I mean, Dirvine means nothing to me. I have no idea what kind of things you talk about here and when viewing all of the different forums and categories i'm completely overwhelmed. What is this site actually about? I think it needs to be more clearly defined.

There's way to many categories and sub forums. You've been consistent with the category, forum and sub-forums but it just seems a bit weird that you have only one forum in each category and then a bunch of sub forums. I've never seen a forum do this before. And i've seen a lot of forums.

I think i've covered everything i can see. Oh, one last thing. The forum descriptions. It looks like you've gone a bit lazy on those. Some examples: "Take a break" Take a break from what? I don't even know what we are suppose to be talking about in the first place. I'm taking a break from talking about games, movies and computers to talk about technology? Huh? 😕

"Do Not Disturb!" Do not disturb...? I'm seriously confused. Am i not allowed to talk in this forum?

• Why are there 4 different twitter accounts for 1 site?

The Theme

The theme is ok but it looks a bit bland and boring. Some of the forum icons are different sizes and have backgrounds.

The style switcher has a theme called "tesssssst". It doesn't look very professional.

Google Search

I understand that forums cost and you need to make money to keep them going, but just copy and pasting code and not formatting it to fit your site is plain lazy. Also, why is it right at the bottom of the forum? Who would ever use it when there is a search link that does the exact same thing. Move it to the top of the forum and style it in to your theme, make out its not powered by google. Unless you have to keep that information there, idk.

If you move it to the top and style it in to your theme its more likely to get used and you will earn more money.

Errors

• I have to log in to view social groups? Why?
• Collapsible button on the dirvine donations is bugged. It collapses the wrong section.

Final Thoughts

A pretty nice site with potential that looks quite active. But you've gone lazy on some things and it can reflect on your members. Combine and compress the forums and categories. Less is more, less forums and sub forums not only means less work for you, but its less confusing for members and potential members and also makes your forum look more active. Possibly loose the marketplace, it looks dead.

Fix the errors and take what i've said in to account and hopefully it should help.

 

[Migi]

What do you think about the "d" in front of everything? It stands for Dirvine, and looks cool (me thinks) but would it be a turn off for new users?

I think it's fine. At least it's clear enough: you said 'dGames' meaning it's a place to talk about games. I feel it's unique enough to integrate the name of your site to the forums.

One thing that always bothers me about forums is them not stating clearly what the site is actually about, what its for and the reason for joining. I mean, Dirvine means nothing to me. I have no idea what kind of things you talk about here and when viewing all of the different forums and categories i'm completely overwhelmed. What is this site actually about? I think it needs to be more clearly defined.

I agree. Perhaps a tag line explaining what you are below the big 'Dirvine' logo will help. Anyone who has visited your website can see that you're a general forum when looking at your categories, but we won't know that unless we're clicking. At one point it can generate interest, at other point it makes people lazy to even click because they don't know what it's about. A bit relative, yeah.

The theme is ok but it looks a bit bland and boring. Some of the forum icons are different sizes and have backgrounds.

I forgot to mention about the different width for forum icons, yes. I'm rather picky in this, I'll much prefer a tidy and clean theme with this included. If it can be fixed, it'll be great.

Good luck! 🙂

 

[dirvine.com]

Whoa so much to take in, and it won't hurt my feelings coz you gave me exactly what I wanted - useful advice, and I'm devouring all of it. I can't wait to restructure Dirvine based on your comments, and I'll be sure to come back and post here once I'm done with all the changes 🙂 Thank you so much Heartless and I don't know why you're called Heartless coz you're such a great helpful person. And thank you phio_chan for giving me the greenlight for the "d"s, it's a huge relief that I don't have to remove them.

Yeah the theme is a bit quirky and I have to create a category in order to be able to create a forum. Has to do with me removing vbseo after the site purchase.

 

[dirvine.com]

I have done a complete overhaul of the forum, taking into consideration every comment that was left here and all the things I'd been wanting to try. I hope you all like the new Dirvine! coz I do! 🙂