www.SoundChilds.net - launching soon

[MikaK]

Partly based on vb.

The actual portal home page (vba CMPS based) is found at
http://www.soundchilds.net/home.php

I?d appreciate comments about the forum styles. The main layout is found at http://www.soundchilds.net/loud_lounge/index.php?styleid=1

and a secondary style is for 300 pixel wide gadgets and found at
http://www.soundchilds.net/loud_lounge/index.php?styleid=4

You can see some action here with style 1 as default
http://www.soundchilds.net/loud_lounge/forumdisplay.php?f=6

Any comments are well appreciated!
-Mika

[KTBleeding]

Well, everyone is going to get upset that you have a "register" popup. Just are warning. ;)

As far as the styles go..
From my point of view, I get a very "cluttered" feeling, and I don't know why. I think it may be the background image.. I get a little confused on some pages seeing the navigation in four different areas as well. I'm not too fond on the ".: :." things around the links, but that's just pickyness of mine, and there are quite a few alignment issues I ran into.

As far as the website goes:
I'm really confused all together. Are their multiple forums set up on here? I ran into both a vBulletin, and a WowBB by clicking the "forums" link. Also a few different registration pages.. That much stuff without a more cleaned up navigation is going to throw people off gaurd and possibly scare them away.

Also, upon visiting the site, I'm a little unsure of what the purpose of it is. Obviously something to do with music/artists. I don't know how you would go about it, but the charts page is very long. I think just a tad bit too many genres for just starting out if you know what I mean?

The site has the potential to make it big, no doubt about it. And there's no doubt that you haven't spent a lot of time on it, but there's just confusion with everything there that I think will make it harder for the site to take off.

I hope that helps? And sorry if I come off as a jerk, it's not intended. ;)
Good luck.

[Dean C]

There is no chance that I'd register on your site with that incandescently annoying register popup. Also for a brand spanking new forum you have a hell of a lot of forums. I'd suggest targetting a niche as there are too many to list off-topic forums. Personally I think you are going to broad and your site won't make it big unless you make some drastic changes to your content :) Good luck!

[Johnny]

What you should of done is relplaced the orange background with a grey or white color and where the darkgrey is at in the catagory should be orange, then i think it will stick out better and easier for the eyes.

[MikaK]

Well, everyone is going to get upset that you have a "register" popup. Just are warning. ;)

As far as the styles go..
From my point of view, I get a very "cluttered" feeling, and I don't know why. I think it may be the background image.. I get a little confused on some pages seeing the navigation in four different areas as well. I'm not too fond on the ".: :." things around the links, but that's just pickyness of mine, and there are quite a few alignment issues I ran into.

As far as the website goes:
I'm really confused all together. Are their multiple forums set up on here? I ran into both a vBulletin, and a WowBB by clicking the "forums" link. Also a few different registration pages.. That much stuff without a more cleaned up navigation is going to throw people off gaurd and possibly scare them away.

Also, upon visiting the site, I'm a little unsure of what the purpose of it is. Obviously something to do with music/artists. I don't know how you would go about it, but the charts page is very long. I think just a tad bit too many genres for just starting out if you know what I mean?

The site has the potential to make it big, no doubt about it. And there's no doubt that you haven't spent a lot of time on it, but there's just confusion with everything there that I think will make it harder for the site to take off.

I hope that helps? And sorry if I come off as a jerk, it's not intended. ;)
Good luck.

KT, you?re right. There are still links to the "old" wowbased forum. The portal is wide by features and the intro hasn?t yet been included to actually tell in brief what this is about.

Also the central registration is one of the practically not yet finished setups.

Thanks for the comment.
-Mika

There is no chance that I'd register on your site with that incandescently annoying register popup. Also for a brand spanking new forum you have a hell of a lot of forums. I'd suggest targetting a niche as there are too many to list off-topic forums. Personally I think you are going to broad and your site won't make it big unless you make some drastic changes to your content :) Good luck!

Lol! I think I share your feeling about the popup :)

Thanks for your comment, Dean.
-Mika

What you should of done is relplaced the orange background with a grey or white color and where the darkgrey is at in the catagory should be orange, then i think it will stick out better and easier for the eyes.

Hmm... This is something everybody wouldn?t share with you. Actually, quite the contrary - naturally you have every right to your opinnion tho! I mean, I did ask for opinnions... So... My very thanks for your comment, Johnny.

Cheers,
-Mika

[Tony G]

I don't like the 100% width of the tables, I'm too accustommed to seeing my tables at 90% or less. If you reduce the table width, you can have the orange background show around the sides which would look nicer.

[MikaK]

I don't like the 100% width of the tables, I'm too accustommed to seeing my tables at 90% or less. If you reduce the table width, you can have the orange background show around the sides which would look nicer.

Tony, thanks for your comment. I guess you mean the style meant for narrow spaces - if so, the dilemma with that one naturally is to have as much space available as possible to show actual content without the user having to scroll around. On the other hand when going mobile, I guess scrolling is a must:D

One note: That style has been designed for PDAs like treo 650 using with screens around 300 pixels wide and using new bandwidth savvy techniques like edge etc - it?s by no means meant for a phone screen).

One more note: The portal is still under heavy duty modding, so this comment request really only regards the forum styles - their usability, the rest is still going to be changed.

Cheers,
-Mika *he liked the orange bg! I told u!:D*

[MikaK]

www.soundchilds.net (http://www.soundchilds.net/) is now pretty close to launch. Thanks for everyone commenting and giving feedback.

The actual portal home page (vba CMPS based) is found at
http://www.soundchilds.net/home.php

If anyone still cares to give comments they are naturally very well appreciated:)

Best regards,
-Mika

[yinyang]

i think you should try anchoring the background (fixed) and see how that works. the background scrolling hurts my eyes.

[Paul M]

I'm curious as to why you are launching a brand new forum using vb 3.0.3 - surely you should use the latest 3.0.7 ?

[MikaK]

i think you should try anchoring the background (fixed) and see how that works. the background scrolling hurts my eyes.

Ok. I myself prefer the content freely floating above the bg. You don?t mean the it?s scrolling when not moving?!

Anyway, thanks for the comment.
-Mika

I'm curious as to why you are launching a brand new forum using vb 3.0.3 - surely you should use the latest 3.0.7 ?

Well... As I?m satisfied with how 3.0.3 performs and there has been far too much other stuff to do by a limited amount of time, I decided to stay with the currently installed one.

Regs,
-Mika