Joe's Ultimate Off Topic
 

<a href="http://www.juot.net" target="_blank">www.juot.net</a>

OK let me have it... too many ads? The one in the first post doesn't appear for registered users... The skin is fairly basic? I know, it's what my users want actually... there are even more basic styles (and a dark style) available besides the default. I know some graphics aren't great on the dark style, it's something we deal with since I wouldn't even have bothered with dark if not for a handful of users who demand it.

I really don't know why you have 3 completely same styles (Default, Basic, Very Basic) ??

Get a real theme dude.

Theme works for the site and obviously you have a good amount of loyal users. I wouldn't change a thing. What you have made you a big board so if your members don't mind it then leave it alone.

Basic has no background image b/c I got complaints from a few people in the beginning who said the background was slowing down their browsing... Very basic has no images in the navbar and does away with the secondary navbar (icon for each subforum) altogether... in a recent poll about 20% of the users preferred 'very basic' though truthfully no-one reported using 'basic' at all... I only keep it because it doesn't really require any additional work on my part since it's a child template of the default with only 1 change... but I could remove it completely without issue at this point.

I am constantly wondering if I'm not doing a dis-service not having a 'real' custom theme, it's just that whatever I pick I know it will upset some people, a lot, no matter what change because they just don't like change. If I went to a new default theme I'd have to keep the current as "Classic" and "Classic Very Basic" in addition to a new theme and as we all know what multiplies the work needed to make modifications.

I wouldn't say we are a 'big board' yet... We have tons of posts, yes, but less than 1,000 users, half of which were probably banned spammers anyway... every other board I visit with even half as many posts as me have 20,000+ members, that seems ridiculous to me... the 250 or active already have 275 different opinions on everything.:rolleyes:

Joe, it's always cool to see that JUOT.net has not only survived breaking off from its original home but is thriving.

I really should visit more often... it's been a few years since I've talked with any of the regular OT crew. :(

Thanks... you probably don't know it but I was in the Hospital for a year, near death in fact at this time last year, they didn't think I was going to make it actually... one of the guys hacked some of my accounts to keep things running and they managed to collect some money to buy a vB license since I had just leased it not knowing if it would survive a year... luckily things were going fairly smooth when I was able to take back over earlier this year. I'm home now but still in bed unable to walk yet- getting physical therapy every day though. There was a 'split' with some active members defecting to webwheeling.com, but for the most part we're on good terms with people going back and forth... we're in talks now to sort of re-unite the forums with a shared forums mod. Otherwise not much has changed. Sorry I berated someone on coolscifi yesterday but he was asking for it. ;)

:eek: I didn't know! Sorry to hear but good to see that you are still with us. If you need help with anything on the vB side, just let me know.

Now I have to go find it! :p For the most part, the Cool Sci-Fi crew can handle their own in a debate. Have only had one person really take it personally when his views weren't shared by others.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

It won't be hard to find. :D

Wasn't sure if I entered an elementary message board or....? Just a very generic feeling to it. Looks like you haven't upgraded for a year or two either...? LAME
I didn't waste my time after the third page. Sorry bro. Needs lots of work.

I will grant you it's got a basic feeling because it is just the basic theme with some custom navbars/logos/backgrounds/forum icons... but haven't upgraded in 1 pr 2 years? I'm running 3.8.4 PL2, the second to latest release- I usually skip the odd numbers... hell the forum isn't even 2 years old until this Thursday...

What don't you like that couldn't be fixed with a professional custom skin?

--------------- Added [DATE]1275969137[/DATE] at [TIME]1275969137[/TIME] ---------------

Nevermind... I see what you did here... You took offense to me insulting your forum for its lame policy of locking out unregistered users even though I started a sincere review before I got locked out at the 3rd page... well at least I know why you said the things you did... carry on.. In the interest of maintaining forum decency I will forgo making a snide comment about [anything] ;).

Actually, im just being honest. You haven't upgraded in a while. Would you argue any of my other comments?
Im giving you honest feedback.

Sure you are.. honest feedback using the same words I used for you 6 hours ago.

I've done nothing but update the site for the last 3 months, every day is something new... new v3arcade, new gameroom, new custom mod "bad deeds", new network (shared) forum- a forum shared between different message boards, extended rep mod, a dozen custom BB codes, my own hacks, favorite smilies, and literally a dozen other updated mods I can't think of off hand. If anyone else on this forum echoed your comments I might take them at their word, but your forum is far worse than mine- I literally laughed when I realized who was criticizing me... Laughed... out loud... in my home... at my computer... laughing like I was watching something hysterical on you tube... but I was reading your comments. Thanks for playing. :D

OK I've made some recent changes and updates to the site:
www.juot.net

I've removed a lot of ads for guests except a single ad in the footer. After x amount of thread views there's a "Please register" message with an additional ad.

Listening to a number of my forums users (not the majority but a significant amount none the less) I launched two new custom styles called "JUOT Express" and "JUOT Express Dark" that have been gutted to provide only the basic forum functionality to be optimized for speed and slower connections- no avatars, no sigs, no post icons, no useless "rules" boxes, no custom icons for each forum like I have in the default theme and very few hooks... Just good old fashioned forum viewing.

Most interested in opinions on the new styles but as always all and any comments are welcome.

We have a forum called "the Network" which is shared with a couple of other off-topic forums. We have a custom made "Bad Deeds" mod that lets users exchange reputation points for "gameroom cash" and my "All Topic" mod in off-topic, however off-topic requires registration to view.

Wooow...

Did he hack your forum account.

There's a afghani hacker dude that's been stalking me for two years now so I've been trying to make my site as secure as possible. After you got hacked did you step up your security?

--------------- Added [DATE]1286465306[/DATE] at [TIME]1286465306[/TIME] ---------------

I think your site looks good dude. I'm impressed by your navbar the most though, odd as that sounds. When I went to your bbcode threads, I didn't see the bbcodes. Do I have to join to unlock them? I like your postbit section too btw

--------------- Added [DATE]1286465448[/DATE] at [TIME]1286465448[/TIME] ---------------

Man I'd love to open up my site for review but I installed some mod on here that makes my forum looks weird as hell as a guest. I haven't figured out which mod I need to uninstall yet.

In terms of the hacked account my email address was the weak link so once he got that he was able to change passwords for accounts I had linked to it by following the "lost passwords" options.

Thanks for the comments... some people love the navbar some hate it so I have styles with and without it. The BB Code is strange, it should show for everyone... not all the BB Codes have the install instructions yet, it's kind of a work in progress. This one does though:
http://www.juot.net/forums/showthread.php?t=47879
Curious if you can see it as a guest? I do...

When i view this at my screen resolution, the right menu items exceed the margins of the webpage.

I am using firefox with 1280 x 960

That's weird, is your browser maximized because 1280x960 was my 'target' resolution when designing... I know it looks bad on 1024x768.