New theme made for EPCZ - Would appreciate any feedback

[Jack12]

Hey guys,

This is a constant work in progress, but it's at a point where it is functional and doesn't look too bad (IMO) and just wanted to get some general opinions on it.

My members love it, which is the most important thing (and slightly surprising since there was a learning curve coming from phpbb) but it's time I got some general opinions.

http://epczone.net -> Home page
http://forums.epczone.net -> Forums

All criticism will be taken in good light, thanks in advance for input given.

[TheLastSuperman]

Hey guys,

This is a constant work in progress, but it's at a point where it is functional and doesn't look too bad (IMO) and just wanted to get some general opinions on it.

My members love it, which is the most important thing (and slightly surprising since there was a learning curve coming from phpbb) but it's time I got some general opinions.

http://epczone.net -> Home page
http://forums.epczone.net -> Forums

All criticism will be taken in good light, thanks in advance for input given.

For me personally, too much green with the black although your niche is sort of related I guess and as you said, if your members like it then you can't go wrong ;). I would make some new forum icons for each category.. something that will go better with the style other than the default icons. I would also make the rounded inner containers of the forum a lighter black or a very dark grey for instance #515151 or something like that you;ll have to tinker because (and again this is imo) you need something to "define" the style, a guide of edges if you will.

For being on a learning curve, if this is your first style then I must say good job, you'll get much better over time with this ;).

[Jack12]

For me personally, too much green with the black although your niche is sort of related I guess and as you said, if your members like it then you can't go wrong ;). I would make some new forum icons for each category.. something that will go better with the style other than the default icons. I would also make the rounded inner containers of the forum a lighter black or a very dark grey for instance #515151 or something like that you;ll have to tinker because (and again this is imo) you need something to "define" the style, a guide of edges if you will.

For being on a learning curve, if this is your first style then I must say good job, you'll get much better over time with this ;).

Thanks for all the input.

I thought about going with a lighter colour for the forum rows and postbit at first but went with dark just simply because the phpbb theme I was using was the same.

I'll have a play with lighter colours on my test installation and see how it turns out.

And yeah, this is my first style of anything nevermind vbulletin. I've always just downloaded free themes I liked and used them, but now I'm really getting into php and css coding, learning as I go along.

EDIT: Yeah, images are on the top of my to do list, however not sure what I will do yet. Image manipulation is definitely not my area.

[BirdOPrey5]

I think it looks good!

[masterweb]

Maybe is too dark (well at least to me), what i really like : your skin loads really fast and it's super easy to navigate ;)

[robbiefritz]

I would agree about the icons. Other than that, very sharp!

[Jack12]

Wasn't all that happy with the old look so I made a new one over time.

Would definitely appreciate any new feedback people are willing to give. Very different setup to 'regular' vbulletin styles and interested in thoughts.

Thanks,
Jack

[MylesM]

Very nice layout as always, Jack.

I like the new welcome block. It stands out and gives me the urge to register and be part of your community.

It's very simple, but that's what I like. At least it's not cluttered :D

[BirdOPrey5]

Still looks good- great info too...

I noticed one of your affiliate images is broken - the one for gamerex?
This is the image URL that is broken::
http://forum.gamerex.net/images/misc/affiliate.png
It's broken on the sidebar on non-forum pages. In the forum it works and that URL is:
http://forums.epczone.net/images/epcz/aff/game.png

Loving the 'pop up' share buttons on the articles- maybe you could work that into the showthread pages instead of the default vbulletin bookmarks...

On Google Chrome the footer text isn't all on the same line, the last word, "reserved" is on a new line and "outside the box" - in Internet Explorer it looks fine:

Powered by vBulletin - Copyright ? vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights
reserved.

I started getting an ad in the top corner that is a video that auto-plays... While I can live with advertisements auto-playing videos are a big turn off personally. Some of your ads were static and not a bother at all. [Edit- I see after registering this big 'square' ad is replaced with a standard banner so no big deal I guess.]

FYI- one time your navbar menus were popping up "behind" the banner ad for me. I tried to replicate this but it hasn't happened since- just an fyi in case you've noticed t before.

Also noticed the new logo is only on the forums- the non-forum pages still have the old logo- was that intentional?

Overall still a great looking site!

[Jack12]

Appreciate all your feedback BirdOPrey, informative as always.

First off, the non forum pages are still catching up slightly. I'll be changing the logo and affiliate logo among other things in the next couple of hours. I'll also have to better test the site in other browsers and check out what's happening with the footer.

I like the pop up share icons aswell, they're a great wordpress plugin called sexy bookmarks. I had never thought to really implement them into showthread, but I can't imagine it being all that hard. Definitely something I will look further into.

As for the video ad, that should not be happening at all. I'm using adsense and openx for tracking, and the guest box (if thats the ad you're referring to) is set to text only in adsense. I'll definitely have to find out what's going on there, video ads are a massive turn off, even if it is just for guests.

I'll look into the navbar aswell, I've never had this happen to me though, I'm using z-index to keep them ontop and it's been effective so far.

Thanks for all the feedback again mate, I appreciate it.

[Fusion2]

Like the layout. Colors are kind of dark and intense. But, really like the layout and flow of information!