Prosilver Modification

[posey]

Hee,

I was wondering if anyone has got some tips, suggestion or feedback related to a style I've created myself, based on the Silver Edition of Prosilver. I've changed almost everything; template, theme and imageset. Created a lot of my own images, eventhough I'm not a PhotoShop genius.

So any feedback is welcome!

URL: http://www.conquer-cancer.net

 

[Callum93]

Ok, I've had a look at your site and here are some comments for you.

Positives
*I like the background.
*The forum icons are well designed and unique.
*I like the navigation bar.

Negatives/Improvements
*I think the category headers should be the same colour as the background.
*After ''Designed by posey from FreeForums.org
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
Advertisements by Advertisement Management
cron'', there is too much of a gap to the bottom of the page and the excess white at the bottom looks bad.
*A better banner/improved header

I do think the concept of your site is inspiring as well.

Good luck :great:

 

[Fergal]

Looks good. However, it is too wide for my screen res of 1024 x 768. Personally sites that are too wide tend to annoy me and I generally don't use them. I'm using Google Chrome, perhaps it's not an issue on other browsers.

 

[posey]

Hello,

Thanks for the information guys.

@ Fergal, what is the width of your screen? And to what width would you suggest me to shrink it? I'm not sure if you're a coder, but would it perhaps be possible to set up width in a percentage relative to the user's monitor?

@ Sbfc, do you mean that I should change the blue into the dark striped aswell? Wouldn't that make it rather black-white and take all the colour out of it?

I will look into the gap at the bottom :thumbsup:

As for the banner, thanks for that one. After I've looked at it for a while I realised I was completely not using the right side. Will try to find something for that, perhaps even remove the Site Name and Site Description and integrate it in the banner some how and let it stretch across, aswell as centering it.

Another question, should I remove my own copyright, at the bottom that I created the style? I think I might too and just leave phpBB in there.

Cheers,

 

[posey]

Alright, lots of stuff has been changed.

* I've changed the width of the forum to be relative to the width of the width of a user's screen.

* I've changed the logo, also added a system so it loads a different logo on refresh/new page.

* Removed the Site Name and Site Description from the header.

* Removed the copyright from myself at the bottom, cleaner look.

* Tried to make the white part at the bottom, not sure if I succeeded.

* Removed the Forum Icons

* Added my own created imageset.

Cheers,

 

[Callum93]

The header now looks better, the banner is okay and improved though it doesn't really stand out as great.

Also the huge gap between the copyright and the end of the page is still there and getting rid of it would be an improvement.

As for the colour scheme, thinking about it, I'm not sure whether grey striped category headers would really be suitable.

 

[SettledHate.]

Alright, lots of stuff has been changed.

* I've changed the width of the forum to be relative to the width of the width of a user's screen.

* I've changed the logo, also added a system so it loads a different logo on refresh/new page.

* Removed the Site Name and Site Description from the header.

* Removed the copyright from myself at the bottom, cleaner look.

* Tried to make the white part at the bottom, not sure if I succeeded.

* Removed the Forum Icons

* Added my own created imageset.

Cheers,

Good work, I love a person with such commitment to feedback. ^_^

 

[posey]

Hee,

I've now fixed the gap at the bottom. For guests I've an Ad displayed there and for logged in users it's drastically decreased. Had to do with the padding of the different blocks, didn't think of that earlier.

Will also get someone to do 'more professional' banners for me, as these I've created myself and I'm not a PhotoShop expert..

Cheers,

 

[Fergal]

The forum looks much better now, glad to see that the width issue has been resolved.

Do you feel that the shout box is helping your forum? I've read some comments that a shout box can reduce activity on a forum.

Also it might help if you raised the height of your Google Adsesne banner in the footer of your site. You might find this Google heatmap helpful, it shows the best locations to place ads on a forum https://www.google.com/adsense/support/ ... swer=43868

 

[posey]

Hee,

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm happy with my Chatbox for now, if I feel like it reduces too much activity I can always start off with removing it from the Board Index and just have it on a seperate page. But for now I will leave it as it is.

As for the Ads, thank you for the link it was quite useful eventhough I do not agree with all of it. I've recently moved the Ad below the navigation and the footer info. I've since then been considering to put it back above the footer again as now it's barely being noticed!

I currently only have Ads enabled for Guests, both in the Header and Footer. Do you think I should also add an Ad after every first post of a page? Or will that be too much. Bare in mind that I donate all cash earned by Ads to charity.

Cheers,

 

[Deleted member 4320]

Hey Posey 🙂

I like the style, from quickly looking I think to be honest you need to remove the login box at the top of the second section of the forum as it appears everywhere and can get annoying.

The main reason for this is it shows up on many pages such as the contact page, register page and even the login page which is pointless. I like the general style overall, very neat but the nav bar I think needs to be the same as the footer, that blue colour of the HEX colour #CADCEB. :great:

 

[posey]

Hee,

Thanks for the heads up on the login box. It didn't move position, I've just taken it down from all other pages bar the Index page! 😉

What do you mean with the color of the navbar? You mean to change it to blue instead of the black striped?

 

[Deleted member 4320]

Yeah, instead of having it black stripes have it blue or grey. At the moment it doesn't look right really with the rest of the style being bright an all.

 

[Fergal]

Do you think I should also add an Ad after every first post of a page? Or will that be too much.

Ads after every first post can be fine provided the ads are not too large or distracting. I'd suggest including a single 468 x 60 graphical banner ad. That will get high visibility and it won't take away from the professionalism of your site.

 

[posey]

Thanks for the tips guys.

I do think I will leave the navbar the same as it's now, as I kinda like it like this. Thanks for the tip though, Xplozion.

As for the Ad, I will be adding it after the first post of each topic and mostlikely using your recommended size.

Cheers,

 

[vonsteiner]

Not read what others have put so I could give my honest views:

Overall a good style and layout, would suggest getting rid of the google adds in the header as it pushes your forum down. the overall_footber is too big for what it needs to do so would suggest a few teaks like having the copyright just on the silver background instead of the blue.