CrankshaftCoalition.com

[ice9]

<a href="http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com" target="_blank">Crankshaft Coalition</a>

This is a new community for leaders of automotive forums. It was formed by Hotrodders.com after the forced takedown of an Australian automotive forum.

CrankshaftCoalition.com includes basic legal information for automotive forum administrators, as well as group software development projects, and ideas for collaborative methods of gathering and distributing shared automotive knowledge. It was formed under the guidance of several online free speech organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Free Expression Policy Project. It's hosted on a specialty free speech webhost based in San Francisco, CA.

I'd be interested in any and all feedback -- it's been nearly 5 years since I started a new forum! Please let me know what you think.

[Thug]

nice site i joined up
u need a new style i think tho

[Corriewf]

Everything seems dulled down....... Very plain......

I feel like I should take my shoes off before I post.

[ice9]

Thanks for the quick input.

Yes, it's designed to look very "professional" (that's pronounced "plain") :). I've been designing black-background underground-ish sites for a while, even having a white background looks odd to me. We should be able to do something to make a compromise between a professional look and something that's visually more appealing. Let me know what kind of colors or styles you'd like to see.

[Thug]

just get a free style from www.vbulletintemplates.com

[ice9]

Thanks Thug -- I've heard of that site, but I've never put in the time to check out all the different available templates. If there's something in a clean-white-lame-professional look, I'll try it out.

[Thug]

or use firemant
or air style

[Corriewf]

Its not always about the colors. I would use images for a background. Maybe mess with the padding a tad to give it a 3d look. I would also get rid of the default status icons.

[ice9]

Thanks corriewf -- however, I might actually even remove some of the graphics and replace them with simple text links. I'm also trying to keep the page load times as low as possible.

[Corriewf]

Thanks corriewf -- however, I might actually even remove some of the graphics and replace them with simple text links. I'm also trying to keep the page load times as low as possible.


Are you serious? What images?

[ice9]

I know, I hardly have any images remaining :). I'm shooting for more of a WebmasterWorld or Slashdot type of look. The newthread, newreply, quote images might go.

I'd be really interested to hear feedback on the programming ideas and online community articles listed on the site. I know it's somewhat against the trend, but the images and the skin will probably be kept mostly plain.

[Corriewf]

One question you must ask is what would a user want to see?

What is the point of being so plain?

[ice9]

I suppose my thinking was: "what's the point of being ornate?".

Most of the information-based sites that I now visit are plain-jane few-graphics sites. The users that I'm trying to attract are people interested in legal issues and open-source development, and they're accustomed to seeing information-rich sites, so I figured they might be interested in it.

My hotrodding site is the other way -- more graphically oriented, etc.

[FightRice.com]

I signed up there, Seems like its a pretty useful site oneday :D

[Corriewf]

I suppose my thinking was: "what's the point of being ornate?".

Most of the information-based sites that I now visit are plain-jane few-graphics sites. The users that I'm trying to attract are people interested in legal issues and open-source development, and they're accustomed to seeing information-rich sites, so I figured they might be interested in it.

My hotrodding site is the other way -- more graphically oriented, etc.


Yes but those sites have probably been around before there was much competition in the market. As a new website you need to think about why people should use your site vs those sites.

If you wanted something so basic why not do a phpbb forum instead.....

[ice9]

I admin a phpBB forum too -- I think vBulletin is much more feature-rich, although I like the fact that phpBB is free and open-source. I wanted a clean look, but with the vBulletin functionality. I thought that the phpBB admin panel is pretty limited, and the hack community doesn't seem as well developed as vb's.

To the best of my knowledge the Crankshaft Coalition is unique, so you could say it doesn't have any "competition" yet. It's a community for automotive forum leaders that focuses on freedom of information, group knowledge-sharing projects, and open source development of software for automotive forums.

[Corriewf]

I admin a phpBB forum too -- I think vBulletin is much more feature-rich, although I like the fact that phpBB is free and open-source. I wanted a clean look, but with the vBulletin functionality. I thought that the phpBB admin panel is pretty limited, and the hack community doesn't seem as well developed as vb's.

To the best of my knowledge the Crankshaft Coalition is unique, so you could say it doesn't have any "competition" yet. It's a community for automotive forum leaders that focuses on freedom of information, group knowledge-sharing projects, and open source development of software for automotive forums.


The hacks with phpbb seem more involved as well........ YEAH! It took 30 minutes of hacking but now I have a title YEAH!.

Anyway I hope it isnt too specific for you.

[filburt1]

You not only have one splash page but two of them. The second one is useless: first-time visitors couldn't care less about your site's history, they want to access its content.

[Princeton]

'automotive' AND 'website management' forum??
that's really confusing

I agree ... remove the splash page
it's not necessary
it's a waste of time for your users
it hurts SEO

about the design ...
I like the clean look ... but it needs some character.
Right now, it feels like I'm entering a home for the sick. Not the kind of mood you want to promote.

At the very least, add a background image (gradient) to the headers.
Also, change the color of the borders to a subtle color -- the black thick line just STANDS OUT.
Add your intro to the 'welcome' panel.

[ice9]

Thanks guys, I'll deal with that second splash page, I agree that it's useless.

princeton -- yes, it's a community for automotive admins, I know it's a little confusing right now, I'll do some work on that.

corriewf -- I think I see where you're coming from. I just checked out your site. Very cool, looks sharp and hi-tech. But on my mac, I can't get it to display in IE at all, and it crashes in Mozilla. Perhaps I need a compromise between a stark white look, while avoiding some of the less-compatible style adjustments.

[Corriewf]

Thanks guys, I'll deal with that second splash page, I agree that it's useless.

princeton -- yes, it's a community for automotive admins, I know it's a little confusing right now, I'll do some work on that.

corriewf -- I think I see where you're coming from. I just checked out your site. Very cool, looks sharp and hi-tech. But on my mac, I can't get it to display in IE at all, and it crashes in Mozilla. Perhaps I need a compromise between a stark white look, while avoiding some of the less-compatible style adjustments.

My default style crashed for you?

If you were looking at it last night the mysql server crashed but other then that its been tested on mutiple computers with the three major browsers.

Also you may want to look into a plain style like you have for maybe defualt and offer some spiced up styles for registered users. For example this is my current set up.

default -http://www.saltcreep.com/forums/?styleid=14
Kind of choatic- http://www.saltcreep.com/forums/?styleid=10
Dial up friendly-http://www.saltcreep.com/forums/?styleid=1


I also have an adult style I cant show you lol. :devious:

[ice9]

Thanks corriewf -- offering a nicer style for registered members might be an option for me, that's another good idea for a compromise. But I'm still going to try to stick to an overall plain-jane design, loaded with information.

I think it might be the animation and/or scrolling text on your site that caused the browser crash. However, I'm on a mac, so I probably wouldn't fall into the "major browsers" category.

[Corriewf]

Thanks corriewf -- offering a nicer style for registered members might be an option for me, that's another good idea for a compromise. But I'm still going to try to stick to an overall plain-jane design, loaded with information.

I think it might be the animation and/or scrolling text on your site that caused the browser crash. However, I'm on a mac, so I probably wouldn't fall into the "major browsers" category.


What browser are you using? I have never had that complaint before and my brother whos on the site quite a bit has a mac.

[ice9]

IE 5.1 and Mozilla 1.2.1 -- crashes both on Mac OS 9.1 for me.

[Corriewf]

Wonder if theres something wrong with you jre?

[ice9]

????

[Corriewf]

Java runtime environment.