The Mom Cafe

Ok I have redone a premade template by Peggy and have set most of the sections up. I am slowly but surely getting members so I guess the next step would be to get a review of the site so far.

It really is for anyone to post at even if you are a "mommy" or "daddy" to a cat

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The board looks nice and clean. But I immediately got turned away by most of the forums saying Private.

 

I did that only in hopes that it would prompt those that wanted to read to join.

I did look at it again on my laptop and compared to the desk top it is just to bubble gum pink. I think I might lose my lunch. I so am going to change it again. :::: big sigh ::::::

 

That was my first thought too.

Also with so few members at the moment, there are too many forums, and looks too empty, you'd be better with less, and look busier. You can always add more as you get busy.

 

I followed you alls suggestion and changed the permissions so I hopefully not turn away any more future possible members.

Thank you so much for your honesty.

 

Yeah, it's really a common misconception that making them private will yield more registrations; it simply isn't true.

Those of us that browse countless forums per day really don't want to deal with private sections and if something requires registration, I'm not going to bother. I don't want to register and *hope* there is something I like; I only sign up if I already know the forum has something I like. So show off that content and let people know it's worth their time to join.

Just my honest opinion.

There are other ways of limiting guests that aren't as annoying... like after viewing X threads, they are prompted with a message that they need to register in order to read more. You may want to look into that.

Also, the empty sections that say "never" (as in, no posts have been made), are also a big turn off. Make sure you get some content in there.

 

Visually I find the theme very bland and uninviting. The colours really don't suit one another and kind of clash with some of the text applied onto the gradients. For example down in the What's going on area, the white text located in the thead is really difficult to read. Sure, I know what it's saying but the point is you should always be able to read text and not have it clashing with the background.

The forum status icons seem to have a rough edge around the edge. Easily to correct you can use a matte (if you decide to use a gif format) or maybe .png and this would correct the rough edges for a better visual experience.

The (whats going on area icons) whos_online and stats.gif icons really could do with a change. Default vbulletin graphics tend to look awfull on pre-made or any type of custom theme. I suggest you replace them for something more suitable and consistent with the theme of your site.

Again with the redundant background on graphics, if you look at the newthread.gif button (you've titled it New). You'll notice a square border surrounding the graphic. You can either use a matte background or .png to correct this although being square you can possibly re-size the canvas to the size of the button with no surrounding transparent areas showing.

I know it's not the kind of review you probably wanted to hear but I don't belive in sugar coating a review as it doesn't do you any good and doesn't help you iron out the flaws.

When I first glanced at your domain name I invisioned a style with rich creamy, brown colours, baige with hints of rich dark reds.

Regardless of my review goodluck with your site.

Edit: I was commenting on the dreamy Peach style.