First of two sites

Ok I have (as of the other day) two sites. One is a quite busy and active siote that's been going since 2002, the other is basically an arcade site that won't ever get many posts but will hopefully get some members.

I'll do two separate threads...I don't need a "formal review" just some first impressions so I get an alternative eye on how things look to the guest.

I don't really need any advertising either, we tick along quite nicely through word of mouth and a Google PR of 2 which doesn't sound great but actually we get quite a few people stumbling across us by accident and joining in.


First off the main site:

Forum URL:

Forum Name:

Launch Date: May 2002

Posts/Threads/Members: 897,069/63,944/1,920 registered but probably about 100 to 150 "active" ones.

Forum Software: vBulletin 3.8.1

Description: A site that sells itself on minimal censorship and tolerance of stuff that gets you banned on other sites (but nothing illegal!). A rather zany crowd, often there are heated arguments but also some quite good discussions when the mood takes people. Doesn't easily pigeonhole, and the site can also scare people off if they aren't thick skinned. But everything is actually in good humoir even when it doesn't appear to be.

Other Info/Points of Interest: Spawned from the UK ISP Tiscali's discussion forums after I was sacked as a moderator there and set up my own site for a joke, it sort of took off due to bad feeling.

 

I like the overall appearance of this forum. At first, I actually thought that it was being powered by MyBB... but open closer re-examination, it was clearly vBulletin. Nice job.

 

My very first impression is 'too busy' in appearance. My adhd wouldn't permit me to remain on that site for more than 10 mins at a time, I'm afraid.

 

Thanks Chris, glad you like it. the colour boxes for guests are actually inspired by the norice colours used on MyBB

Yes it is quite a busy page. We did an exercise a while ago to trim some of the clutter down, but it's a constant battle between trying to keep it simple and trying to keep relevant stuff available.

I've thought of shifting the album.social group stuff off the front page but it's sort of needed to promote the fact it even exists because these features are so poorly integrated into vB.

That said....in ten minutes you'd get most of what you'd need anyway.

 

The Stats are really nice on the forum. The overall appearance is pleasing. Good luck with the forum

 

I actually like the busy feel to it, to be honest. I also love the MyBB-style boxes you have at the top, and I'm a fan of the footer and copyright area.

I suggest you move the "today's posts in this forum" to the other side of the forum name, at the end. Because of the size of the text there, it looks weird between that and the large forum icon.

 

Usually I don't mind the business of a site/forum but this is one of the busiest I think I've ever seen. There is hardly any white or open space in the top half of your site.

After reading everything presented (without even scrolling down at all) I feel like I just ran a marathon and am easily ready to leave the site.

I suggest condensing your three little info blocks into one brief paragraph (maybe divided into three sections).
I like how these three forums have a short paragraph and some nice little icons that quickly highlight some of their features:

Walt Disney Boards
Talk Delaware Online forums is your source for chat, news, and information in Delaware
Talk Pennsylvania Forums is your source for chat, news, and information in Pennsylvania

 

Thank you to everyone for their comments, and for taking the time to look over the site.

The "busy" issue is one I've been aware of, and in fact believe it or not we cleaned up some clutter several months back and pruned about five forums from the front page - (technically the number of forums was fine for the level of use but I wanted to condense things a bit to make it easier to browse).

The opinion here reflects what we find on the site...some like it "busy" and others prefer it "clean".

The problem you have is the minute you remove someone, numerous people complain and you end up having to put it all back!

What I'm working from at the moment is that "busy" isn't too bad but "cluttered" is very bad. So I have been cleaning up the layout a lot in recent months.

I am debating removing the Album Pictures block and the Blog/Social groups block from forumhome, as these show on Today's Posts / New Posts as well and are possibly only needed there.


The three coloured boxes for guests I am rather fond of...they are quite recent, having played around with dozens of different ideas before and being happy with none of them! But I do agree there's probably too much text in there and it needs to be snappier and punchier. It's difficult though as the site has no overal specialised subject, and thus the selling points are really lack of censorship, freedom of speech and arcade games!

I'll look at tweaking things a bit more this week.

I'll try the suggestion about the "latest Posts in this forum" and see what it looks like shifted over, that'll be later this week too.

 

Normally I would say that salmon pink color is too bright, tone it down a little, but I think on a forum that prides itself on being "fast, fearless, free" it really works to excite the user.