what do you think of...

[Hornstar]

Well its almost been a year since I have asked what everyone thinks of my board here.

Basically I have taken on lots of those comments and really appreciated them.

However i'm at the stage where i'd love to get some outside feedback again :)

1. www.gamerzneeds.net (http://www.gamerzneeds.net) - custom cms Gaming Homepage - I'm at the stage where i'm thinking of getting the layout professionally designed. I have tried hard to incorporate several forum modifications into the homepage, like displaying the latest downloads and latest threads. What do you think so far?

2. www.gamerzneeds.net/forums (http://www.gamerzneeds.net/forums) -

I have moved to a new dedicated server and had it is optimized.
I have removed all pop-up ads. and kept ads to a very minimum, none in between posts etc. tried to keep things looking clean.
I have added modifications that the members have enjoyed on my site including:
shop: www.gamerzneeds.net/shop (http://www.gamerzneeds.net/shop)
blog: www.gamerzneeds.net/forums/blogs (http://www.gamerzneeds.net/forums/blogs)
gallery: www.gamerzneeds.net/forums/gallery (http://www.gamerzneeds.net/forums/gallery)
I have split the forum home into 4 sections because there was too many forums and it was really hard to navigate and was overwhelming to new guests before.
The sections are:
General Gaming (http://www.gamerzneeds.net/forums/gaming.html)
GfX - For All your Graphic Needs (http://www.gamerzneeds.net/forums/gfx.html)
Technology Zone (http://www.gamerzneeds.net/forums/techzone.html)
and of course everything else is on the main forum page. Let me know what your thoughts are on this, and other ways to improve organization etc.<<< Promotional text removed >>>


Any comments, feedback, criticism etc. is welcome, I'm at the stage where I want to make the site stand out that little bit more.

Thanks.

[legionofangels]

Busy, is the best word I can use. It seems you've done good on building your site up which is awesome. However I actually don't like your overall design too much, I like the colors, but that's where it ends. I really don't like the horizontal lines, that would give me a headache after awhile. I dunno I guess as far as the forum and the tables, the forum is huge, like very long in height. I thought I was pushing it with my own, but your's is very long. I'm thinking of condensing mine some more even and I would suggest you do the same.

I also think there is a ton of information of each poster on the forums, it's like so much information is being shown, lil weapons from an item shop or hack, thanked amounts, it's like..."ahh...clutter". Like a ton of it, not just a medium amount either, a lot.

I don't really understand the new/post old post image, but it looks unique and cool, just a lil big is all.

Overall it's not horrid or really that bad, just very busy with too many bells & whistles is my opinion.

[Coux]

agreed, also the load time sux.. remember that most people out there will browse away from your site if it takes more that 5 seconds to display..

[Hornstar]

Hey, thanks for commenting. the current load is: 0.53 0.27 0.25 This is a lot better then what it has been in the past. Ideally, I would like it faster, but can't afford a better dedicated server currently. But all in all, I will keep working on optimization and improving server load in other ways.

A brand new default skin is on the agenda for both the homepage and the forums. What do you think of the other skins? I have got another 3-4 skins for my members to choose from, so the members do have a choice.

The current skin is based off a game called Gunbound. It was designed with the old layout of gunbound, so it is in need of an update ^^

I will look at better ways at improving the way the stats are displayed, but I can assure you, without them, my members will be annoyed lol.

The forums are quite long, but all the ones on the forum homepage are busy, the ones that were not as busy, I moved to different pages. I am trying to figure out a better way still, as those forums are popular and the members have requested them to stay on the main page. I'm just not sure how to better improve the look of them. maybe subforums, but not sure how that would turn out.

Any ideas on this?

[legionofangels]

Yeah just a few thoughts, and some of what I'm thinking. A big forum is cool, but grouping topics by familiarity is key IMO. I'd like group a bunch of MMORPG's for example, and then subforum them within a forum, to shorten your overall length. Then people will still be able to post in them, but you're overall forum design is cleaner and not as long.

As far as stats displayed even "boxing" them will keep them more organized, or bolding there headings, cleans them up even a smidge.

[Hornstar]

Yeah just a few thoughts, and some of what I'm thinking. A big forum is cool, but grouping topics by familiarity is key IMO. I'd like group a bunch of MMORPG's for example, and then subforum them within a forum, to shorten your overall length. Then people will still be able to post in them, but you're overall forum design is cleaner and not as long.

As far as stats displayed even "boxing" them will keep them more organized, or bolding there headings, cleans them up even a smidge.

K, thanks for the tips. I'll see what I can do. the only problem I will face is two of the popular games on the homepage are run by two different companies, so having the same game under two headings will cause confusion. I'll try tho.

Anyone got any other positives or negatives?