Sports Forum Help

[maddenminds]

I started up this site not even knowing the differense between a domain host and a domain url. Not knowing anything about creating websites has lost me alot of members but by keeping faith and having such a strong desire to help others by sharing my football knowledge i have come a long, long way. I now have a site i can be proud of and share with you guys. Please spend a little bit of your time reviewing this site and let me know what i can do to make better. My goal is to have the number 1 madden tournament website. I feel with this communitys help i will achieve this goal. Eventualy i will be buying a elitegamingladder script so the ladder on the forum i have now will not be needed eventualy. Below i have put my homepage, forum and old ladder, any suggestions will be considered and greatly appreciated.

Site Homepage- TheMaddenMinds (http://themaddenminds.com)

Site Forum- TMM FORUMS (http://themaddenminds.com/forums/forum.php)

Old Ladder- TMM LADDER (http://themaddenminds.com/ladder/)

New Ladder- Forum Ladder (http://themaddenminds.com/forums/competitions.php?)

[BirdOPrey5]

I just looked at your forums... you should create a favicon.ico file... this is a small graphic that shows in the web browser and when someone bookmarks your site. You can google for info on how to make and upload one.

I like the footer bar graphic but the white text for "contact us" and such doesn't contrast enough with the colors in the footer graphic- if I didn't know what they were supposed to say I'd have a hard time reading them.

I'm not a fan of your logo graphic- I really can't tell what is going on in the picture and the "MM" on the side seems like an afterthought- I think that should be front and center. (Obviously this is all just opinion)

I noticed some (most?) of your forums the threads can't be viewed by guests... I know this seems like a way to get more people to join but if guests can't view threads then search engines can't view threads either so you're going to lose out on a lot of traffic of people searching for topics covered in your threads.

Finally in your footer your 'Vbulletin" link is the same color as the background basically making 'vBulletin" invisible. Per your license agreement you must keep vBulletin text and it must be readable, you'll need to change the link color or the background color to be in compliance.

[maddenminds]

the favicon is something im going to look into now. The forum skins im planning on changing asap. I will post results on this thread I plan on changing the banner to marry with homepage. i didnt know search engines cant see the forums. Like you said im just trying to get people to sign-up. I think i will go a few months on and a few months off with this strategy. furthermore, im not sure what my license agreement is since i purchased full ownership of these forums.

[BirdOPrey5]

You purchased a license for vBulletin. vBulletin Solutions does not sell "full ownership" of the software. You must run vBulletin in accordance with your license.

For an extra fee there is a "Branding Free" license available where you can remove the vBulletin branding from the footer. I don't know if you purchased this option or not, but if you didn't then you are currently in violation of your license.

[FunnyMan]

visited your forum...overall the design looks good....

couple of things...

1) "connect with facebook" text on the top right corner aligned to bottom i guess...make it as middle.
2) may be it would be good if you could blend head color with your background...
3) may be it would be good idea, if you could say connect to face book at one place rather than displaying it in the header and navbar.,..

good luck!

[maddenminds]

You purchased a license for vBulletin. vBulletin Solutions does not sell "full ownership" of the software. You must run vBulletin in accordance with your license.

For an extra fee there is a "Branding Free" license available where you can remove the vBulletin branding from the footer. I don't know if you purchased this option or not, but if you didn't then you are currently in violation of your license.

I paid around $200 to renew this forum i hope i own it lol.

--------------- Added 1292814795 at 1292814795 ---------------

visited your forum...overall the design looks good....

couple of things...

1) "connect with facebook" text on the top right corner aligned to bottom i guess...make it as middle.
2) may be it would be good if you could blend head color with your background...
3) may be it would be good idea, if you could say connect to face book at one place rather than displaying it in the header and navbar.,..

good luck!

Yea i plan on getting a header that will blend with background and footer. thats something that was mentioned to me and will be correcting asap. As for the Facebook mod, im not sure if i could move it i will have to look into it or maybe getting diff fb mod.

[Lynne]

I paid around $200 to renew this forum i hope i own it lol.
You can read the License Agreement here - http://www.vbulletin.com/order/license_agreement.php
vBulletin Solutions owns and retains all right, title and interest in and to the Software, including all copyrights, patents, trade secret rights, trademarks, service marks and other intellectual property rights therein. Your possession, installation, or use of the Software does not transfer to you any title to the intellectual property in the Software, and you will not acquire any rights to the Software except as expressly set forth in this Agreement. All copies of the Software made hereunder must contain the same proprietary notices that appear on and in the Software, including all Software copyright notices embedded in any design template which must remain unaltered from the original and visible at all times. vBulletin is a registered trademark of vBulletin Solutions in the U.S. and in the U.K.
So, unless you purchase the Branding Free option mentioned, you must make sure the copyright remains and is visible in the footer of the pages.

[maddenminds]

thanks for letting me know this. i guess i didnt purchase branding free. I updated the forum by the way, feel free to add some new comments.

[teamsupra]

Also where is the Copyright information that came with your free Battlefield skin? If you use the skin you must retain the copyright information in the footer.

Why are you removing all of the copyright information from the footer? You know you will loose your hosting or worst? The best thing to do is become legit with your sites before you loose them. I am contacting the developer of that skin and letting them know that their copyright information was removed. Oh they do not offer copyright removal for a fee.

[maddenminds]

Also where is the Copyright information that came with your free Battlefield skin? If you use the skin you must retain the copyright information in the footer.

Why are you removing all of the copyright information from the footer? You know you will loose your hosting or worst? The best thing to do is become legit with your sites before you loose them. I am contacting the developer of that skin and letting them know that their copyright information was removed. Oh they do not offer copyright removal for a fee.

im not sure what copyright your talking about?? I had a freelancer install this skin. Wouldnt it make more sense to help me fix the problem rather than causing more problems?? WOOOOW!

[BirdOPrey5]

There is a Battlefield3 link right above the forum time, that may be sufficient, I don't know what the style author requires...

However I noticed another problems- Your "Facebook Like" button doesn't "Like" your forum- when I press it it "Likes" (and links to) battlefield3forums.com. I'm guessing the Twitter button does the same but didn't test it. Obviously whoever installed your style forgot to customize these codes for your forum/domain- you should contact him or her and see if they can fix this.

[maddenminds]

ok thanks i fogot all about changing the facebook one after i changed the twitter.

[watty005]

nice site dude, looks awesome. What plugin did you use to get vbulletin 4.1.1. working on wordpress because i need this plugin.

Regards.

[maddenminds]

I had a freelancer do my update from version 4.0.1 to newest version

[watty005]

how much did this cost you?

[maddenminds]

I have spent a lot since day 1. I have been at this site since 09 and had alotof set backs. SportsTournys.com I would say I put around 200 into it.