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 :squareeyed:

[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]

Originally Posted by forumtalks.com

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?

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.

Originally Posted by True.Rooster

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.