Alright:
I like the idea of articles on the homepage, but they way they are displayed is not so well done. The biggest thing that you have something to do is to categorize your database of articles, something that would be easy for your guests and users to look through. Once I first started looking around, I notice that under the articles, it states "Posted in _____", so I went to click the link and it did nothing. Why have that under the title when it doesn't do anything other than link right back to the homepage. I was expecting to be redirected to the "Other" category or the "Asperger's Syndrome" category, but I was sadly mistaken.
Yeah, they shouldn't yet be links - An oversight on my part, apologies. In Beta 2 this has been resolved as things can be categorised to a new page.
Another thing that I was quick to find was how the navigation bar at the top had the same links that the footer has, why?
If you don't have javascript enabled, or are browsing from a tablet, or something fails - The redundancy is there.
I believe that having both the navigation bar and the footer having links is a great idea and helps with the user interface, but do you really need the same links in both places?
As per the above, yes - I'm catering for a lot of users that may or may not use javascript.
You could have more of a custom area in the footer for something like a mission statement, or similar.
We don't have a "mission statement" - More work to do ho hum...
😛
Also, do you really need the "Stats for Nerds" section in the footer? For the average user, they don't really care what the levels are on your servers.
Oops, thought that was staff only. Will resolve.
While I was lurking around, I was reading some forum posts. I was quick to find a small bug, and that was the date. One most of the threads, the system said they were posted in 1970 at 12AM, which I highly doubt.
Resolved in Beta 2.
Something else I noticed, the forums are dead.
Yes, well you try running a site like this and see how you go - It's not an easy task, and progress
is slow - But the forums are in no way dead. There's new replies every day, maybe not hundreds of them, but there are a few.
I looked throughout the forums and most of them had 0-2 replies to them, that's not a good way to present your community to a perspective user.
And that's also a bug caused by a dodgy query which I've resolved in Beta 2 as well.
I know you told me not to concentrate solely on the forum, but it's part of the community and it needs some TLC too, and right now, it's left alone with some dusty threads.
I agree - But as one person who has one hell of a development job and a community to run it is far from easy.
While this isn't too big of a deal, it's something to point out. Once I was first loaded on the "Radio Asperger" page, the links in the navigation bar didn't load and didn't for some time. It seemed the page re-loaded itself and then it works. Something simple I assume.
Yeah, something to work on with the completion of the Auto-DJ.
Another thing that I found was just how unattractive your theme is. Personally, it didn't flow well together and is just, well very white walled. The first thing I went to do was to look for a logo to press to be redirected to the homepage, that didn't go over too well. On the homepage, you have a very simple sidebar area which is okay, however, it's not nice to look at. You have a "Coming Soon" for the "Radio Asperger" section, which is fine because I guess you're in beta. The "No Account" section needs some work as well. Instead of just asking me to register, tell me what you do here. I know you touch on it in the header area, but not enough detail to make me register. Overall, Asperger's Network is clocked with a very bland theme that doesn't support the content, which is a shame.
The theme has had some facelifts for beta 2, and I intend to put much more work into it, but at this stage it looks as though it'll be staying as I don't have the time or resources to design a whole new theme - and the site is all custom write, so it's not as easy as "upload, install".
