Name of Site😀iscussion Dog Site Genre:General Site URL: http://discussiondog.forumotion.co.uk/ Type of Review (Quick): Opening Date: 1st Jan 2014 Additional Notes:
Please be nice with me! Thanks
Because last time it was a bit harsh Lol
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Theme
I have always been a fan of the darker based themes, and your forum's theme is no different. Despite darker themes sometimes being harder on the eyes (especially for those with bad/troubled eyesight), I find them to be a lot easier and more appealing to look at vs the lighter themes that have crazy colors (some of which may be bright).
Weaknesses:
Hard to read navigation bar
I'm not sure if it's the actual navigation bar, or if it's the images, but it's extremely small, and hard to read. I had to get my eyes closer to the screen and strain to see what some of them said, and even then, I still had to hover my mouse over it. I suggest a few things depending on what the problem is. If the images are the problem, resize the images to make them bigger. You could also try changing the text color to a more brighter silver, borderline white. Even consider removing the gradient overlay. (depending on if a different color fixes the problem)
Usergroup Color
One of the first things I noticed when scrolling down your forum was the moderator group color. On a dark themed forum like yours, having the moderator group be a default blue or dark blue makes it near impossible to see the group name and member's name unless you select their name. If you absolutely must have blue for moderators, I strongly suggest a lighter blue, maybe something along the lines of Cyan.
I also noticed that you have "admin" as your username. While I understand on some forum providers admin is the default username they give you, there's nothing stopping you from changing it. Keeping your name as admin comes off to me as a way of distancing yourself from the community. When you (the owner/administrator) have your username as something personal (first name, for example), it shows you're not just "the admin" that runs everything, but you're an active member of the community and see your members as not just members, but friends.
Theme
While I do like the darker themes, I find the specific one you're using to be extremely bland. There's no color variation, it's just all black and white (with a hint of silver), which is pretty common for the majority of themes out there. If you know what you're doing, I'd play around with some color combinations and see what you can do to the theme. If you're not that experienced with phpBB, or just not familiar with customizing themes, I'd look for a new one altogether. Make sure it does have some variety in colors, even if it's just black and green (just an example).
Final Remarks:
Unfortunately, DiscussionDog does not offer anything unique that would make me want to choose it over another general discussion forum. I would try to be creative and think of some unique things you can do/add onto DiscussionDog that would make it more appealing.
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