Mets Paradise

This is my new website:

metsparadise.com


I expect alot of complaints!

Everything is still being worked on and I'll love any ideas.

 

I don't know a lot about the mets, but the link in your post goes to the AA forums. The link under your avatar works though.

You do have some formatting issues in the right hand column too were some blue text is wrapped onto itself.

Looks like it has much information fans would like : )

 

My bad I screwed up the link but thanks!

 

My Review

Layout and Style

I'm going to discard the main URL and work on just the forum as the blog integration doesn't appear to be working right (images not loading for example).

As for the forum however; very nice custom style. I don't follow baseball. Though I do follow the colours that match the team colours. I think you've managed to integrate the orange and blue pretty well but although I'm not one to comment as I have some shocking forums that don't follow a colour pattern yet still I get the mix wrong, I think a forum that excels in the style could manage to arrange the orange and blue in such a way that it's more pleasing to ones eye.

The "mets paradise main site" link in the ad layout template below_navbar could be a link in the main menu which would be more suited and less amateur I feel. Though I'm sure it serves functionality where it's currently placed.

I like the background that stays put as you scroll, that could be too much if it scrolled with the site. I'm currently using Google Chrome but just quickly tested it in IE8 and FireFox and it works fine in that too. I find that some backgrounds have issues in some browsers, though you passed the quick test there. Well done.

Modifications

I like the stats on the homepage, and you have it in the right place with the right functions active from a user and search engine point of view. I hate seeing it at the top of a website with every feature of those stats running to guests. So well done there.

I've noticed that out of your 85 members that "Acexogilizimicib" is the newest suggesting that your registration spam prevention isn't working, or you don't have it in place. I often find if your website is subject to getting in databases 'to be spammed' then the simple 'question and answer' setting sometimes even wins over against recaptcha. Setting up questions like "how do you spell paradise?" and then having the answer as the correct spelling, obviously. And then setting up 4 more other types of really simple questions to answer for your member type would really throw the 'automated spammers' off somewhat. There are mods on vb.org and even mentioned a lot on AA here that will point you in the right direction of a spam-free forum though. This will cut down on moderation time and also save you bandwidth in the long run, and also make your member count and post count accurate to just mets related chat.

Activity, Content and the likes

Plenty of Mets chat. Not so much activity though if I took half the member away as I thin they're spam, then that brings a pretty okay average topics and posts count per member for such a newish forum with such a unique category. Please do consider getting the forum optimised. Checkout the topics on AA here and on vbseo.com for some advice. You don't always have to go down the vbseo route though I think it gives a good head start for those that have the investment cash.

Just scanning over some other points here as I think I've covered the main points there.

Favicon: good move
general icons throughout the forum: could be customised but I'm a firm believer in spending time on making good content - so I respect there is a bit of that on the forum so perhaps you've been doing that. Though food for thought for the future as you know how easy it is to change those I'm sure.
The Blog / website bit: not so good perhaps? Wordpress would be more suited and can be bridged to carry the forum members too, perhaps consider that?
SEO: clearly not a biggy for you, though I'd seriously consider working on a few variations of 'key phrases' that would bring in lots of interested traffic, and therefore eventually members. It's a real biggy with any website, let alone forums that need 'hits' that land on the website to be really really targeted and up to discuss the topic.
Forum category descriptions: I'd add some more mentioning 'mets' a lot. I know it can get repetitive, but you sometimes just have to think of a dozen ways to say the same thing. It can help with member activity, but also search engine spiders.

Overall rating IMO: 7/10 - I'd look out for this in 12 months. Could be a 10.