I Need an opinion on if my forum is good and if it looks good or bad

[forumtalks.com]

Hi, I need an opinion on if my forum is a good looking webmaster forum. I would also like to know if i need anymore hacks. I would also like to know how my design looks. www.ForumTalks.com (http://www.ForumTalks.com) :squareeyed: :rolleyes:

[Tony G]

It's quite nice. I like the header and images, one thing I don't like is the green links though. Even though you have green in your style, the link colour still looks out of place to me.

I also think your side bar is a bit too wide.

Otherwise, very nice. :)

Oh, and you're also starting off with way too many forums, 10 should be the maximum for a new forum IMO, and then expand as you get more members/activity.

[Gio~Logist]

I like this forum ALOT.

- Easy on the eye
- Well designed logo
- Clean/Well designed skin
- Loads fast
- Nice colors

I have no complaints

[Andrew]

The links are kind of hard to read on my monitor - Especially once they switch to the orange after you mouse over them. Apart from that it is a very nice looking style - I like it alot !!

[Corriewf]

I like it but the whole forums on the left hand side thing is driving me crazy. I guess cause im right handed I dunno.

[forumtalks.com]

Thanks for all the great compliments. Would you guys know where to advertise it that takes paypal

[vBTotal]

Looks good!

[Tony G]

Thanks for all the great compliments. Would you guys know where to advertise it that takes paypal

You mean put an image that you accept donations?

[Guest190829]

No, I think he wants to know where he can advertise his site, that accepts paypal.

[Brinnie]

BOARDS:

First of all, your forum width is broken. To fix it, you'll need to change your width to 95%. Didn't your mother ever teach you anything?

And I like the welcome panel on the right... Probably more than the forum itself. But it's too wide. Shave an inch off.

Ditch the blinking post icons.
Is there supposed to be a banner at the top right and on the bottom center? PUT SOMETHING THERE! Why you people put your forums up for review when they are blatantly incomplete is beyond my comprehension.



FORUM INDEX: Looks fine... Except for the lack of missing threads. Alltough I never quite understood why people with custom skins don't use custom post icons.

That's a dead giveaway that you did not design your own skin.



Moving right along...


POSTS
Also, you have too much sh** going on. You gradually add that stuff as your member base grows. Nobody cares about your your Hexxagon Championshipness, your FT$'s, your cartoon avatar or your Trader Ratings. I feel like I've been ripped off. The board is called forumtalks.com but it looks like a kids playground and with the "Arcade" link... A gamers board! It have G33K written all across it. If you ask me, it's a goddamn mess and I want a reimbursement for this review!


the gfx look good because for 29.99 yes, YOU TOO can have this fabulous skin. So there's really nothing special about the design.


COMMUNITY
Your stats are the weakest I've ever seen.
Registered Members: 34
Total Threads: 75
Total Posts: 217

Here's a tip from the owner of vBulletin:
What are the most common mistakes you see new admins making?

The biggest mistake made by new administrators and long-time administrators alike is trying to create too many forums on a board. Unless a board has an extremely active membership of several thousand people there is almost no point in having the board subdivided into lots and lots of forums. All too often I see boards that give the impression of being totally dead because there are a hundred forums, each receiving only a handful of posts per day. It is far better to have everyone post to just a small number of forums so that everyone can see what everyone else is doing. This mixing of topics and people is the fundamental essence of community. Once you have a million posts and a few thousand unique posting visitors every day, then you can think about adding more forums so that topics don't get lost.


The links are kind of hard to read on my monitor - Especially once they switch to the orange after you mouse over them.

A case study at sitepoint has proven that irrelevant and that people rarely read links on mouse hover.

[kobescoresagain]

Everything other than the links looks good to me.

[Princeton]

Green links have to go.
Right side bar is too wide. (You're wasting valuable space here.)
Secondary navbar (below top ad) is cluttered and unreadable

[Brinnie]

I don't think he cared for a review. Just wanted some traffic.

[Tony G]

Excuse me, on what assumption do you make that?

Brinnie, I would really appreciate you keeping comments like that back, especially when they are simply out of nothing. Critisise the forum, not the person.

[Paul M]

I don't think he cared for a review. Just wanted some traffic.I doubt they cared much for your "review".

[m0nde]

Yes, as the other people have said,

1) get rid of those green links, they clash with the background. Consider simply making them black with that horrible green as the hover colour.

2) for your white links, change the hover colour to black or that complementary blue colour in the scheme.

nota bene: since you paid for this scheme, you should have had the people who designed it do these things before purchase because they're very poor design choices.

4) pare down the number forums. You should be able to cut it down to 10 without much ado. If you need specifics on which to keep and which to merge and what to name the resultants, I recommend asking on vbwebmaster.com (http://www.vbwebmaster.com)

5) try to make the vertical and horizontal aspects a perfect rectangle at all times. push down that advertising rectangle on the right side and put something over there, polls, trader stats, something.

6) brinnie is right that the arcade is out of place. i understand that these things draw people to the site, but yours is a professional forum. i recommend becoming an amazon affiliate and adding a book store of books that you recommend for web site and forum optimisation.

nota bene: if you can't make your site look optimal, why would any right minded web master choose your forum, one about web sites, over something else?

- Sid

[Brinnie]

I doubt they cared much for your "review".


Truth is painful.