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TechsTalk
Well my first impression was that I was impressed. For the amount of data, and my not-always-great internet speed, your site loaded quickly!
The first thing my eyes were brought to was your Featured News, which is probably what you were going for. However, I then brought my attention to the Video of the Week, pressed play, and then scrolled down to the other content of the week.
I like how the Question of the Week is present as it automatically offers an interaction between me and your site. However, I really dislike how the Google Ads appear before before your Subscribe option and Recent, Popular, Comments, and Tweets tab section.
I personally think that the Recent, Popular, etc tabbed section should be closer to the top of your page. However, I can understand that making money via Google ads is important and you obviously want people to subscribe to your blog.
Something else I would suggest would be adding another section after your last one in the main area (Reviews, News, Tips and Tutorials, tabbed area). I would randomly display articles. Not only would this suck your users in faster, it would also give them something to read on the main page and along with that have them notice your subscribe form and Recent, Popular, etc tabbed section more often!
Overall the layout's coloring and style is amazing. It's really clean and very easy to read. Nothing to suggest here as the most common fault is that webmasters make a not-so-great banner for their pre-made theme. However, your's is fitting and clean. However, the ad next to it is slightly lower and as a perfectionist, I would recommend lining the bottom of that banner ad with your TechsTalk logo.
Hope that these small tips and comments help you out in some way! This one was hard; your site is very impressive.
The first thing my eyes were brought to was your Featured News, which is probably what you were going for. However, I then brought my attention to the Video of the Week, pressed play, and then scrolled down to the other content of the week.
I like how the Question of the Week is present as it automatically offers an interaction between me and your site. However, I really dislike how the Google Ads appear before before your Subscribe option and Recent, Popular, Comments, and Tweets tab section.
I personally think that the Recent, Popular, etc tabbed section should be closer to the top of your page. However, I can understand that making money via Google ads is important and you obviously want people to subscribe to your blog.
Something else I would suggest would be adding another section after your last one in the main area (Reviews, News, Tips and Tutorials, tabbed area). I would randomly display articles. Not only would this suck your users in faster, it would also give them something to read on the main page and along with that have them notice your subscribe form and Recent, Popular, etc tabbed section more often!
Overall the layout's coloring and style is amazing. It's really clean and very easy to read. Nothing to suggest here as the most common fault is that webmasters make a not-so-great banner for their pre-made theme. However, your's is fitting and clean. However, the ad next to it is slightly lower and as a perfectionist, I would recommend lining the bottom of that banner ad with your TechsTalk logo.
Hope that these small tips and comments help you out in some way! This one was hard; your site is very impressive.
Well the first thing I noticed was that everything loaded, and THEN the banner loaded. This may be my internet connection, but possibly because your banner is a large file. Perhaps try reducing the file size of it so it loads quicker. This will help people who are loading your forum from a crappy internet connection.
The banner looks very nice however, there is no more of that awesome blue coloring around your forum and that is disappointing.
The forum is dark, and I am okay with that. However, that is my personal opinion and many people do NOT like such dark layouts or themes. Many people WILL judge your forum on this and may not sign up because of it. However, it is not outrageously hard to look at or anything, so you should be fine for the time being.
Now, content. On the side you have Recent Status Updates. I would recommend actually moving this below your Recent Topics bar. Doing this will make people more aware of new topics and encourage them to post. However, I do like the status updates, so definitely keep them readily available and noticeable!
Furthermore, you seem to be a gaming site, or at least came from one (modhalo). I think that this fact should result in more gaming sections, or at least gaming related sections being shown on the top of your forum.
Along with that, to increase posting you may want to consider moving your 'Site' category to the bottom. Sure, those sections (Introduce Yourself, Info, Suggestions) are important, but so is what your site is actually about!
Anyways hope these short tips are helpful
The banner looks very nice however, there is no more of that awesome blue coloring around your forum and that is disappointing.
The forum is dark, and I am okay with that. However, that is my personal opinion and many people do NOT like such dark layouts or themes. Many people WILL judge your forum on this and may not sign up because of it. However, it is not outrageously hard to look at or anything, so you should be fine for the time being.
Now, content. On the side you have Recent Status Updates. I would recommend actually moving this below your Recent Topics bar. Doing this will make people more aware of new topics and encourage them to post. However, I do like the status updates, so definitely keep them readily available and noticeable!
Furthermore, you seem to be a gaming site, or at least came from one (modhalo). I think that this fact should result in more gaming sections, or at least gaming related sections being shown on the top of your forum.
Along with that, to increase posting you may want to consider moving your 'Site' category to the bottom. Sure, those sections (Introduce Yourself, Info, Suggestions) are important, but so is what your site is actually about!
Anyways hope these short tips are helpful
Well, the first thing I noticed was the giant banner ad. While that's good for you as you may make money, it's not the greatest. The first thing you should want people to notice is your actual site. Don't let your ads be too eye-catching. The point of the forum is growth, not just financial.
Anyways, I then noticed your logo. Something I liked was the waves slanting down after Pro. Also, your motto 'Promotion, Marketing, Success!' is genuine and will attract visitors as those are all three commonly desired things. However, the wrod Market seems kind of dark. Along with that in, MarketPro there seems to be a faint grid pattern going on. It seems too complex and not really fitting. I'd recommend going for a solid, clean look.
As I always suggest, move your Front Office to the bottom of your page. Sure, announcements, suggestions and introductions are important, but it is your other content that actually makes up your site.
Moving down into Promotion Wing, I think your sections are good, straight forward and instructive. Visitors won't be able to confuse themselves and not know where to post. That's good; some forums screw this up.
However, one thing I will challenge is: What distinguishes your site from the rest of promotion boards? Where is your spice? I'm not saying you don't have it as I am not a member there, but make sure you focus on this if you want to create a great, large promotion board.
The layout itself is clean, easy to read and look at. Some may think it is bland, but I think it works perfectly as it is not distracting at all; meaning people can actually focus on your content, not cool special effects.
However, moving down: You offer a space for people to request a text ad. While that is a great feature, it doesn't look good having a repetitive message about people being able to request the service. I'd recommend finding some affiliates for the time being to fill the space. Or maybe you can just throw in some of your favorite sites with just one note about letting people request a text ad.
And now at the last part; The shoutbox. Looks great, seems to function well. However, please note that when your site gets larger this will severely slow down your site. Also, shoutbox scripts are often vulnerable to attacks that allow access to other "secure" parts of your site.
Anyways, I then noticed your logo. Something I liked was the waves slanting down after Pro. Also, your motto 'Promotion, Marketing, Success!' is genuine and will attract visitors as those are all three commonly desired things. However, the wrod Market seems kind of dark. Along with that in, MarketPro there seems to be a faint grid pattern going on. It seems too complex and not really fitting. I'd recommend going for a solid, clean look.
As I always suggest, move your Front Office to the bottom of your page. Sure, announcements, suggestions and introductions are important, but it is your other content that actually makes up your site.
Moving down into Promotion Wing, I think your sections are good, straight forward and instructive. Visitors won't be able to confuse themselves and not know where to post. That's good; some forums screw this up.
However, one thing I will challenge is: What distinguishes your site from the rest of promotion boards? Where is your spice? I'm not saying you don't have it as I am not a member there, but make sure you focus on this if you want to create a great, large promotion board.
The layout itself is clean, easy to read and look at. Some may think it is bland, but I think it works perfectly as it is not distracting at all; meaning people can actually focus on your content, not cool special effects.
However, moving down: You offer a space for people to request a text ad. While that is a great feature, it doesn't look good having a repetitive message about people being able to request the service. I'd recommend finding some affiliates for the time being to fill the space. Or maybe you can just throw in some of your favorite sites with just one note about letting people request a text ad.
And now at the last part; The shoutbox. Looks great, seems to function well. However, please note that when your site gets larger this will severely slow down your site. Also, shoutbox scripts are often vulnerable to attacks that allow access to other "secure" parts of your site.
The first thing I noticed was a combination of one of the ads, and also the amount of posts in your sections. I have seen your forum before and know that it has done pretty well and certainly has a lot of content.
What that previous statement tells me is that obviously the majority of your visitors feel invited and are okay with your design, available sections, and forum ways (style of moderation, the way the community works, etc).
I will admit that I like the design, but do find it kind of dull and well "business like". The layout almost seems as if it is as acceptable as a business man in a universally grey suit. While his suit is acceptable for meetings, it is not as exciting as a blue pinstriped suit. Your style works, and it is fitting for a business advice forum. However, it really just doesn't seem inviting. It makes the feel of the forum become very serious, dull, and honestly not that welcoming. However, that is for me; a guy headed into college that has a right to fear serious business conversations and technical lingo due to inexperience.
On your forum your sections seem fine as they all have a good amount of posts in them, so obviously they have a use. However, I am wondering what Commercial Forums is all about as it only has one forum "eKindom Wholesale Electronics" in it. I am curious as to whether it is possible to move this section into another category. It may look a bit cleaner.
A technical change could be in your panel on your right where it says Forum Threads. You may want to consider making it so you can scroll over the title of the recent threads resulting in a tooltip to popup with a preview of the post. Also, as it looks like there aren't many avatars being used, you may want to get rid of showing avatars in the Forum Threads panel as it looks odd with most of the avatars the default white body on grey background.
Another technical change could be with your favicon. I would recommend getting rid of the white box and instead just having BAF on a transparent background. It'll just look more professional as the white box looks odd on a grey web browser tab.
Anyways, enjoy and hopefully some of these tips help 🙂
What that previous statement tells me is that obviously the majority of your visitors feel invited and are okay with your design, available sections, and forum ways (style of moderation, the way the community works, etc).
I will admit that I like the design, but do find it kind of dull and well "business like". The layout almost seems as if it is as acceptable as a business man in a universally grey suit. While his suit is acceptable for meetings, it is not as exciting as a blue pinstriped suit. Your style works, and it is fitting for a business advice forum. However, it really just doesn't seem inviting. It makes the feel of the forum become very serious, dull, and honestly not that welcoming. However, that is for me; a guy headed into college that has a right to fear serious business conversations and technical lingo due to inexperience.
On your forum your sections seem fine as they all have a good amount of posts in them, so obviously they have a use. However, I am wondering what Commercial Forums is all about as it only has one forum "eKindom Wholesale Electronics" in it. I am curious as to whether it is possible to move this section into another category. It may look a bit cleaner.
A technical change could be in your panel on your right where it says Forum Threads. You may want to consider making it so you can scroll over the title of the recent threads resulting in a tooltip to popup with a preview of the post. Also, as it looks like there aren't many avatars being used, you may want to get rid of showing avatars in the Forum Threads panel as it looks odd with most of the avatars the default white body on grey background.
Another technical change could be with your favicon. I would recommend getting rid of the white box and instead just having BAF on a transparent background. It'll just look more professional as the white box looks odd on a grey web browser tab.
Anyways, enjoy and hopefully some of these tips help 🙂
The first thing my eyes were brought to was your scrolling reel of game characters. It is a really nice touch and I love how it just keeps reeling flawlessly. However, the downfall of this is that it such a great start, but the rest of you forum looks rather dull. 🙁
I would highly recommend adding some color from the top into other areas of your forum if you can figure out how to do that! While the diagonal stripes on the sections are a nice, discrete design, the text is kind of hard to look at for me. While their white coloring on the black background helps them stand out, it seems to be hard to actually concentrate on them and pay attention to them.
However, to your credit; I am being harsh at the moment to prove a point, one that hopefully you will take seriously as there are many people out there that hate dark styles (I am one that can get used to them, and actually like them). My main point is that you need some flare; some coloring; spice.
Now, the next thing I did was to go into Media and I was very disappointed when it told me I needed to be registered to see it. You may want to consider getting rid of Media (meaning that it is only visible to logged in members). Then again, if there is someone who wants to see Media and discovers they must sign up, then it may be incentive to reigster.
Then I went to Members; all your registered members are visible to the public. I am not sure if you knew that, but you may want to fix that if you didn't do this on purpose.
Help Page is useful. Nice Smilies too 😀 However, I am curious why you have on the top, right under the Menu links for Smiliies, BB Codes, etc. Then actually on the help page you have them again listed down vertically in their own little bubble. And on top of that there is another menu going horizontal with the same links. You may want to cut this down.
( http://www.gamingsection.net/help/ )
Another technical problem is that your 'Home' link and 'Forums' link both go to the same page, your forums. You may want to consider getting rid of one of these links, or adding something else to be displayed when Home is clicked on. Otherwise there is no point in having the link there.
Your panel on the right is cool, but your Staff Online Now would be cool if it was Members Online Now and the staff were simply displayed first or something, in a color-coded list form.
Furthermore, it may be beneficial if you had a Recent Threads section in your panel on the right.
Hope all this helps! Good luck 😀
I would highly recommend adding some color from the top into other areas of your forum if you can figure out how to do that! While the diagonal stripes on the sections are a nice, discrete design, the text is kind of hard to look at for me. While their white coloring on the black background helps them stand out, it seems to be hard to actually concentrate on them and pay attention to them.
However, to your credit; I am being harsh at the moment to prove a point, one that hopefully you will take seriously as there are many people out there that hate dark styles (I am one that can get used to them, and actually like them). My main point is that you need some flare; some coloring; spice.
Now, the next thing I did was to go into Media and I was very disappointed when it told me I needed to be registered to see it. You may want to consider getting rid of Media (meaning that it is only visible to logged in members). Then again, if there is someone who wants to see Media and discovers they must sign up, then it may be incentive to reigster.
Then I went to Members; all your registered members are visible to the public. I am not sure if you knew that, but you may want to fix that if you didn't do this on purpose.
Help Page is useful. Nice Smilies too 😀 However, I am curious why you have on the top, right under the Menu links for Smiliies, BB Codes, etc. Then actually on the help page you have them again listed down vertically in their own little bubble. And on top of that there is another menu going horizontal with the same links. You may want to cut this down.
( http://www.gamingsection.net/help/ )
Another technical problem is that your 'Home' link and 'Forums' link both go to the same page, your forums. You may want to consider getting rid of one of these links, or adding something else to be displayed when Home is clicked on. Otherwise there is no point in having the link there.
Your panel on the right is cool, but your Staff Online Now would be cool if it was Members Online Now and the staff were simply displayed first or something, in a color-coded list form.
Furthermore, it may be beneficial if you had a Recent Threads section in your panel on the right.
Hope all this helps! Good luck 😀
Okay well there's a lot going on. What does the bird have to do with your forum? I may be out of the loop as I don't listen to folk, indie, or bluegrass really, but to me it seems rather random. However, besides that the guitar is a nice touch. 🙂 One more thing about the banner though - I would make the words Mahogany Folk a little bit more noticeable, and the tag line folk, indie & bluegrass music forum a bit more discrete. However, your users may like it as it is!
Moving to the right we have the links for Search, Memberlist, Links, About Us, etc. Now it may just be my browser, or a temporary fault, but at the current time only the links are loading with nothing else. The links are white, on a light background and are hard to read. It also just looks kind of scattered and would look much better if instead of links they were full on customized buttons.
Okay moving down, past the cool flowers, we get to your actual forum's content. The first thing I noticed was the blue 'new' icons notifying me that new posts have been made since my last visit. The problem with this is that the blue really doesn't match the rest of the forum. I'd recommend changing it to green. To be honest, the main problem with the forum is color coding. The design is cool, but just with some slight color changes it would look so much better and in the end attract more members!
Sections seem alright, but that's really up to you. You may at some point consider adding more detailed sections, or combining and generalizing some. Always keep this in mind as it can make a huge different in the quantity and quality of new posts made. An example of this would be combining Dubstep and Electronic.
I checked out the blog, and thank you so much for matching it to your current website! It looks professional that way. However, if you make any changes to your forum make sure you do the same to your blog!
Besides these things though your site seems to have a lot of potential as a cool niche forum. However, I cannot stress enough the need to take a closer look at some specific color choices.
Hopefully this helps, enjoy!
Moving to the right we have the links for Search, Memberlist, Links, About Us, etc. Now it may just be my browser, or a temporary fault, but at the current time only the links are loading with nothing else. The links are white, on a light background and are hard to read. It also just looks kind of scattered and would look much better if instead of links they were full on customized buttons.
Okay moving down, past the cool flowers, we get to your actual forum's content. The first thing I noticed was the blue 'new' icons notifying me that new posts have been made since my last visit. The problem with this is that the blue really doesn't match the rest of the forum. I'd recommend changing it to green. To be honest, the main problem with the forum is color coding. The design is cool, but just with some slight color changes it would look so much better and in the end attract more members!
Sections seem alright, but that's really up to you. You may at some point consider adding more detailed sections, or combining and generalizing some. Always keep this in mind as it can make a huge different in the quantity and quality of new posts made. An example of this would be combining Dubstep and Electronic.
I checked out the blog, and thank you so much for matching it to your current website! It looks professional that way. However, if you make any changes to your forum make sure you do the same to your blog!
Besides these things though your site seems to have a lot of potential as a cool niche forum. However, I cannot stress enough the need to take a closer look at some specific color choices.
Hopefully this helps, enjoy!
First thing I noticed? How small the text is of your sections. It is way too condensed and needs to be enlarged. At least for me, as it would help to grab my attention. Furthermore, those who need glasses or with smaller computers or on their phones are not going to be to happy with the small grey text of your section descriptions.
One thing I would say about your banner is that it is black on grey, when the rest of your website is mostly blue. I'd recommend changing the text color, or at least adding some blue in there. The menu is fine, and I like how the current page is highlighted blue, and grey if you scroll over something in preparation to click it.
Now moving down again to your content, I noticed that you ahve a LOT of sections. While they all seem to have posts in them, some of them have as low as 5 Discussions and on second look one section only has 1 discussion! I highly recommend generalizing some sections and combining sections where possible to encourage posting. Broader sections allows for more posts to be made. Furthermore, users will have less trouble with becoming confused on where to post and will easily be able to navigate your site.
On your panel on the right here is my list of suggestions:
-Make your Sign Up Now! button more noticeable and colorful.
-Move your sponsors down the page some more. You're a new forum and ads are lame for new forums. (Just saying...)
-If you don't have a lot of members online now (currently 1 member, 7 guests) I'd recommend getting rid of that feature. As you have a thing that displays members who have visited in the last 48 hours and there is a good list of people, I'd recommend moving that up the page and replacing the online members one.
-Forum stats are cool. Recent Posts is cool too, but perhaps get rid of the icon/avatar display as they all seem to be white question marks on a blue background at the moment and it is kind of annoying :/
Other than that the site looks good, and I know I focused on a lot of negatives, but I try to do that so you know what should be fixed. However, your site looks good and I wish you the best of luck.
However one last thing; Back to sections. Your stats say over 21k posts. That's awesome! However, with so many sections it looks like a much smaller forum...that's not something you want in people's heads. If I hadn't seen the stats I would have assumed this was a newer forum, which seems rather untrue!!
One thing I would say about your banner is that it is black on grey, when the rest of your website is mostly blue. I'd recommend changing the text color, or at least adding some blue in there. The menu is fine, and I like how the current page is highlighted blue, and grey if you scroll over something in preparation to click it.
Now moving down again to your content, I noticed that you ahve a LOT of sections. While they all seem to have posts in them, some of them have as low as 5 Discussions and on second look one section only has 1 discussion! I highly recommend generalizing some sections and combining sections where possible to encourage posting. Broader sections allows for more posts to be made. Furthermore, users will have less trouble with becoming confused on where to post and will easily be able to navigate your site.
On your panel on the right here is my list of suggestions:
-Make your Sign Up Now! button more noticeable and colorful.
-Move your sponsors down the page some more. You're a new forum and ads are lame for new forums. (Just saying...)
-If you don't have a lot of members online now (currently 1 member, 7 guests) I'd recommend getting rid of that feature. As you have a thing that displays members who have visited in the last 48 hours and there is a good list of people, I'd recommend moving that up the page and replacing the online members one.
-Forum stats are cool. Recent Posts is cool too, but perhaps get rid of the icon/avatar display as they all seem to be white question marks on a blue background at the moment and it is kind of annoying :/
Other than that the site looks good, and I know I focused on a lot of negatives, but I try to do that so you know what should be fixed. However, your site looks good and I wish you the best of luck.
However one last thing; Back to sections. Your stats say over 21k posts. That's awesome! However, with so many sections it looks like a much smaller forum...that's not something you want in people's heads. If I hadn't seen the stats I would have assumed this was a newer forum, which seems rather untrue!!
The very first thing I noticed about My insane Life was all of the pink. While it is not my favorite color, at least there wasn't any flashing lollipops and smilies. However, while this may attract girls and some guys, it is a turn off to many guys and even girls as well!
Picking neutral colors is a huge part of gaining an audience for your blog. However, that said, you are going your own direction and the blog is about YOU, and if the layout fits YOU then go for it!
A potential path you may consider going down could be creating a forum for other people like you to share their life stories and relate on them. But that's just an idea!
Now, going through your content I realized that you use a lot of slang and don't spell everything correctly. This is your personal blog; that is okay. However, older visitors may be turned away because of this. Furthermore, for SEO (search engine optimization) this is not good. It would be better to spell correctly and eliminate & signs, etc. This will help search engines let searchers discover your content!
To improve interaction with visitors and your blog you may want to consider adding polls. For example, Hate or would Rule out, and I likes could let readers vote on what they like, and what they hate. Doing this will encourage users to come back, see what others vote, and even become addicted to your site the same way those self posted interviews/list of questions are on Facebook notes! 😀
I love when people post related media to what they are writing about. An example of this is you in your KE$HA post. Do this more often, it really expands content.
Back to layout. I'd recommend limiting how much posts on your website you show on the first page. On the bottom, cut off the list of blog entries and have a link like "Load older posts..." or "See older entries". This will make it clean, load faster (though it already is quite fast), and perhaps help visitors discover other content on various parts of your website.
With your affiliates page, I'd recommend showing some of your affiliates on teh sides of your site. For future reference, require certain size restrictions or even force them to have a certain size affiliate image. Not only will this make it cleaner, it will also allow you to have more affiliates in the future. Make sure you encourage your affiliates to do the same, and tell them you want your affiliate image on their main page, or one of their popular pages as well.
Lastly, try to get your link to say 'myinsanelife.whatever.com' instead of 'myinanelife.whatever.com' as it will increase your SEO and help users remember your link easier.
That's it for now, but good luck with your blog and hopefully this helps.
Picking neutral colors is a huge part of gaining an audience for your blog. However, that said, you are going your own direction and the blog is about YOU, and if the layout fits YOU then go for it!
A potential path you may consider going down could be creating a forum for other people like you to share their life stories and relate on them. But that's just an idea!
Now, going through your content I realized that you use a lot of slang and don't spell everything correctly. This is your personal blog; that is okay. However, older visitors may be turned away because of this. Furthermore, for SEO (search engine optimization) this is not good. It would be better to spell correctly and eliminate & signs, etc. This will help search engines let searchers discover your content!
To improve interaction with visitors and your blog you may want to consider adding polls. For example, Hate or would Rule out, and I likes could let readers vote on what they like, and what they hate. Doing this will encourage users to come back, see what others vote, and even become addicted to your site the same way those self posted interviews/list of questions are on Facebook notes! 😀
I love when people post related media to what they are writing about. An example of this is you in your KE$HA post. Do this more often, it really expands content.
Back to layout. I'd recommend limiting how much posts on your website you show on the first page. On the bottom, cut off the list of blog entries and have a link like "Load older posts..." or "See older entries". This will make it clean, load faster (though it already is quite fast), and perhaps help visitors discover other content on various parts of your website.
With your affiliates page, I'd recommend showing some of your affiliates on teh sides of your site. For future reference, require certain size restrictions or even force them to have a certain size affiliate image. Not only will this make it cleaner, it will also allow you to have more affiliates in the future. Make sure you encourage your affiliates to do the same, and tell them you want your affiliate image on their main page, or one of their popular pages as well.
Lastly, try to get your link to say 'myinsanelife.whatever.com' instead of 'myinanelife.whatever.com' as it will increase your SEO and help users remember your link easier.
That's it for now, but good luck with your blog and hopefully this helps.
Okay. I am a dark theme fan, but this is way too dark. While going through the site, I noticed that the usernames were colored. For example, violino's is a cool blue, and Pvt_Tracy is orange. These colors really look good with the grey/black you are using. I'd recommend making your section name/descriptions one of these colors of variants of it!
The banner is alright, but Pvt_Tracy's, neck of the woods! doesn't really seem fitting color wise. While I like the shooting soldiers, the words in the middle should be a different color in my opinion. Design is a huge aspect of gaining members and I always start with it.
Content. You have too many sections. While I like the first forum which includes, RPG Games, Cell Phone Games, etc..the rest of the sections seem excessive. For a newer forum you shuold try to concentrate on core sections and generalize some of them. This will broaden criteria for sections and users will be able to figure out where to post easily. Also, with less sections and the same amount of posts it makes your forum look bigger! It's nice to enter a section and see pages of threads instead of just a few threads in numerous sections.
If I understand correctly this forum is based on your personal interests. However, it seems almost general and random in a sense. For example, you have Virus Warnings in one area and then a whole section for Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, and Tweaks. I'd recommend combining a bunch of these.
I'll go into detail. If I were to reconstruct your forum it would go like this:
Web Games, FPS Games, RPG Games, Portable Games, Steam & Mini Profiles (or allow this specific section to allow for posting of any game community profile discussions).
Portable Games would replace Cell Phone Games and would allow for cell phone gaming, Nintendo DS, Gameboy and all portable gaming device discussions.
The next category would be:
News & Announcements, Suggestions, Welcome, and Affiliates.
The next category:
General Chat, Health (in replace of Recipe Exchange), Art (replacing Poetry, Anime, (allowing for all forms of art), and Media. In here I would also combine your whole computers category and make a section 'Computers'.
Taking out Profile, you could easily allow and encourage users to post about themselves in General Chat. Media would replace your whole Movies and TV Shows.
You should take out your Banner Share section and just encourage users to post their ads in either the Affiliates section or you could make an advertising section elsewhere for all of this.
I highly predict this will make your forum look cleaner, easier to navigate and will encourage more posts.
As well as this, hide your Code Testing section and make it only visible to staff to test out new addons/plugins/codes. You can then have a list of forum tricks, codes, etc somewhere in your Announcements area or you could create an information page somewhere.
Hopefully this helps you out! Good luck!
The banner is alright, but Pvt_Tracy's, neck of the woods! doesn't really seem fitting color wise. While I like the shooting soldiers, the words in the middle should be a different color in my opinion. Design is a huge aspect of gaining members and I always start with it.
Content. You have too many sections. While I like the first forum which includes, RPG Games, Cell Phone Games, etc..the rest of the sections seem excessive. For a newer forum you shuold try to concentrate on core sections and generalize some of them. This will broaden criteria for sections and users will be able to figure out where to post easily. Also, with less sections and the same amount of posts it makes your forum look bigger! It's nice to enter a section and see pages of threads instead of just a few threads in numerous sections.
If I understand correctly this forum is based on your personal interests. However, it seems almost general and random in a sense. For example, you have Virus Warnings in one area and then a whole section for Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, and Tweaks. I'd recommend combining a bunch of these.
I'll go into detail. If I were to reconstruct your forum it would go like this:
Web Games, FPS Games, RPG Games, Portable Games, Steam & Mini Profiles (or allow this specific section to allow for posting of any game community profile discussions).
Portable Games would replace Cell Phone Games and would allow for cell phone gaming, Nintendo DS, Gameboy and all portable gaming device discussions.
The next category would be:
News & Announcements, Suggestions, Welcome, and Affiliates.
The next category:
General Chat, Health (in replace of Recipe Exchange), Art (replacing Poetry, Anime, (allowing for all forms of art), and Media. In here I would also combine your whole computers category and make a section 'Computers'.
Taking out Profile, you could easily allow and encourage users to post about themselves in General Chat. Media would replace your whole Movies and TV Shows.
You should take out your Banner Share section and just encourage users to post their ads in either the Affiliates section or you could make an advertising section elsewhere for all of this.
I highly predict this will make your forum look cleaner, easier to navigate and will encourage more posts.
As well as this, hide your Code Testing section and make it only visible to staff to test out new addons/plugins/codes. You can then have a list of forum tricks, codes, etc somewhere in your Announcements area or you could create an information page somewhere.
Hopefully this helps you out! Good luck!
The first thing that I noticed was your annoyingly forced banner suggesting that visitors click to register. While it is irritating and probably will cause users to register, there are far more better ways to get this done. You want users to join your site because of your content, and community; not out of being annoyed. If you run a good board members will come no matter where your register link may be.
After I scrolled down to see if the banner was a glitch or not, and noticed it followed me wherever I scrolled to, I noticed the amount of posts in certain sections. I was impressed and thought well okay, this place is active!
However, I was soon annoyed that I could not see your full on banner because the register banner hovering above it! Along with this, you can't click the Register link underneath it, so what's even the point of the Register link even being there? Furthermore, if someone is not logged in, how can they click the login link? Instead they have to scroll to the bottom to the login function. That's a hassle.
Here's a sidestory; Amazon has a patent war going on over their 1 click buy process. It forced other businesses to make customers click one more extra time before buying something. Amazon realized that speed and ease of buying would produce profits for them at a higher rate than if they had an extra click of the mouse required in the buying process.
Realize this and make logging in as easy as possible for your users! It's simple and sounds silly; but seriously 🙂
After going through your sections I saw that Role Playing, Humorous Stuff, Education, and Fan Clubs all have a small amount of threads. Some have a high amount of replies however, unless these sections are rather new I would recommend combining or generalizing them to increase posting.
For example, perhaps Humorous Stuff could go away and just naturally be posted in the Lounge. Perhaps Education could change to Support and people could get some tips for anything, but not only limited to schooling. Things like that will improve your site tremendously!
Something else I noticed was when I clicked on a tab that gave me an error saying I was not authorized to view it. Since you seem keen to encourage registering maybe you could put a reminder for visitors to Register on pages/errors like this!
Other than all of this the content seems good, sections set up nicely, and the design is clean and easy to look at! Sorry if this review is short; your forum is in great shape!
Enjoy!
After I scrolled down to see if the banner was a glitch or not, and noticed it followed me wherever I scrolled to, I noticed the amount of posts in certain sections. I was impressed and thought well okay, this place is active!
However, I was soon annoyed that I could not see your full on banner because the register banner hovering above it! Along with this, you can't click the Register link underneath it, so what's even the point of the Register link even being there? Furthermore, if someone is not logged in, how can they click the login link? Instead they have to scroll to the bottom to the login function. That's a hassle.
Here's a sidestory; Amazon has a patent war going on over their 1 click buy process. It forced other businesses to make customers click one more extra time before buying something. Amazon realized that speed and ease of buying would produce profits for them at a higher rate than if they had an extra click of the mouse required in the buying process.
Realize this and make logging in as easy as possible for your users! It's simple and sounds silly; but seriously 🙂
After going through your sections I saw that Role Playing, Humorous Stuff, Education, and Fan Clubs all have a small amount of threads. Some have a high amount of replies however, unless these sections are rather new I would recommend combining or generalizing them to increase posting.
For example, perhaps Humorous Stuff could go away and just naturally be posted in the Lounge. Perhaps Education could change to Support and people could get some tips for anything, but not only limited to schooling. Things like that will improve your site tremendously!
Something else I noticed was when I clicked on a tab that gave me an error saying I was not authorized to view it. Since you seem keen to encourage registering maybe you could put a reminder for visitors to Register on pages/errors like this!
Other than all of this the content seems good, sections set up nicely, and the design is clean and easy to look at! Sorry if this review is short; your forum is in great shape!
Enjoy!
Slick. Clean. Apple-like. I like the look of this; even though I hate Apple products, their design is awesome and your site reminds me of them. Your design is inviting, and makes me want to check it out. I love how simple it is. Simple as in it is easy, nothing crazy going on, everything matches, yet it is complex at the same time. I sound like I'm making love to your site, I'm not. However, I can't stress enough how much I think you need to stick with this style. I dislike your note about getting a new theme. But I'll see your next one and perhaps it will be even better!
Something I am curious about is why there is a Twitter icon under your Site Announcements. It doesn't make sense. I can't click it, and it doesn't seem to serve a purpose.
Along with that, I usually move my Announcements, Introduction section, and Feedback section to the bottom of my site. They are the least important sections. Focus on your main content.
When looking at your subforums, I noticed it saying things such as Android, and 4 more. I think you should display these subforums on the main page. That way those sections will receive more attention and popular visitors of them can easily get to them.
Also in the Technology section, I would recommend combining some sections. Putting Websites and Web Browsers into one section may encourage posting and also it will clean up space a bit. I like forums with condensed sections more than ones with dozens upon dozens of sections!
You may want to consider changing Mobile Devices to Portable Devices to encourage people to also include device discussions regarding things such as Nintendo DS, Gameboy etc. You may even want to get rid of numerous subforums (like the ones in the Mobile Devices) and simply merge them into Mobile (or Portable) Devices completely.
Just curious...What is Private Zones? And what is the point of it? Also, in your Mall section; Dude, totally let people pay real life cash for site points. You'll make profit!
Something I am curious about is why there is a Twitter icon under your Site Announcements. It doesn't make sense. I can't click it, and it doesn't seem to serve a purpose.
Along with that, I usually move my Announcements, Introduction section, and Feedback section to the bottom of my site. They are the least important sections. Focus on your main content.
When looking at your subforums, I noticed it saying things such as Android, and 4 more. I think you should display these subforums on the main page. That way those sections will receive more attention and popular visitors of them can easily get to them.
Also in the Technology section, I would recommend combining some sections. Putting Websites and Web Browsers into one section may encourage posting and also it will clean up space a bit. I like forums with condensed sections more than ones with dozens upon dozens of sections!
You may want to consider changing Mobile Devices to Portable Devices to encourage people to also include device discussions regarding things such as Nintendo DS, Gameboy etc. You may even want to get rid of numerous subforums (like the ones in the Mobile Devices) and simply merge them into Mobile (or Portable) Devices completely.
Just curious...What is Private Zones? And what is the point of it? Also, in your Mall section; Dude, totally let people pay real life cash for site points. You'll make profit!
From top to bottom.
Up top you have the awesome, geekily nice looking logo. I also like the guy sitting with the laptop. But...while it looks awesome you may want to ponder this; is using a Mac for the laptop in the guys hand the best idea? It may lead visitors to associate your site directly with something Apple related. However, only people like me over analyze that so you should be okay 😉
The links are all good, and I like how interactive they are (for example, Alerts tells me all the new replies on my recently made threads, and threads I've posted in). However, I'm confused as to why there is a link that says Money: $XX, and also another one that says WGBB$. Another thing about calling your currency WGBB$ is that it is a rather long abbreviation and not easily memorized. For example, on this site FP or FP$ is commonly used. This is very easy to remember and type!
Moving into the main content section I notice all the sections. As I am a member there, I am familiar with them. However, something that I have noticed is the coloring of them. The black on white/grey utilized is rather dull. Especially as the banner is so exciting, blue and lively! I would love to see some coloring like this in other areas of your forum. It is a shame that it's somewhat neutral and almost all black and white.
Other than that, the design and layout/set up of your style is almost perfect. The only other thing I would recommend would be putting your Share/Like/Tweet buttons higher up to encourage the sharing of your site with people's IRL friends. The power of word of mouth will gain you members!
Something else that you may want to consider is combining your Technical Area and your Tech Zone. I see there is a recent thread about Grand Theft Auto in your Tech Zone. Encourage users to continue threads like this, but in another section; perhaps Media (if you made it all forms of media: movies, videos, games, music, tv, etc).
You may also want to to combine Hosting & Domains with Forum Management.
Hopefully this is sufficient at this time. I must admit it is 1 AM and I am tired, but as I will be posting on your forum more in the future due to pure awesomeness I promise to suggest anything that comes along.
One last thing though that I did notice is WebGuruBB; your title. You may want to consider changing it at some point so it is easily searchable and your SEO improves.
Up top you have the awesome, geekily nice looking logo. I also like the guy sitting with the laptop. But...while it looks awesome you may want to ponder this; is using a Mac for the laptop in the guys hand the best idea? It may lead visitors to associate your site directly with something Apple related. However, only people like me over analyze that so you should be okay 😉
The links are all good, and I like how interactive they are (for example, Alerts tells me all the new replies on my recently made threads, and threads I've posted in). However, I'm confused as to why there is a link that says Money: $XX, and also another one that says WGBB$. Another thing about calling your currency WGBB$ is that it is a rather long abbreviation and not easily memorized. For example, on this site FP or FP$ is commonly used. This is very easy to remember and type!
Moving into the main content section I notice all the sections. As I am a member there, I am familiar with them. However, something that I have noticed is the coloring of them. The black on white/grey utilized is rather dull. Especially as the banner is so exciting, blue and lively! I would love to see some coloring like this in other areas of your forum. It is a shame that it's somewhat neutral and almost all black and white.
Other than that, the design and layout/set up of your style is almost perfect. The only other thing I would recommend would be putting your Share/Like/Tweet buttons higher up to encourage the sharing of your site with people's IRL friends. The power of word of mouth will gain you members!
Something else that you may want to consider is combining your Technical Area and your Tech Zone. I see there is a recent thread about Grand Theft Auto in your Tech Zone. Encourage users to continue threads like this, but in another section; perhaps Media (if you made it all forms of media: movies, videos, games, music, tv, etc).
You may also want to to combine Hosting & Domains with Forum Management.
Hopefully this is sufficient at this time. I must admit it is 1 AM and I am tired, but as I will be posting on your forum more in the future due to pure awesomeness I promise to suggest anything that comes along.
One last thing though that I did notice is WebGuruBB; your title. You may want to consider changing it at some point so it is easily searchable and your SEO improves.
