Feedback on petsite

[Gladhatter]

I like your VBadvanced first page concept but I think it may be a bit crowed on there. I would consider using that as a jump page to the main forum and make it a bit less cluttered and some thoughtful graphical theme.

[Talk-Pets]

KTBleeding; thank you for showing me what you mean I must find I find the snow/snowmen concept childish just like the orange colours :erm: We are mainly adults on the board and even though teens are welcome, its not who want to attract.

Also, the sites you link to are commercial sites who has products to sell. We dont want to sell anything and actually we?ve had quite a debate about the few adds being up on talk-pets.com as it is.

We do get contacted regulary by varios shops and sellers of varios equipment if we want to advertise for them and get XX in return. Personally I?m not too happy about that and would prefer not to but perhaps you?re right? Perhaps we should look into this and just do as the rest of them...

Gladhatter; thank you for your reply We have recently closed to board for all guests to read so the VBadvanced should really be a small glimt of what goes on. Then people would have to sign up or log in to get access to the board.

How did you imagine it to look excatly? *** Removed ***

[Gladhatter]

I am not good at it to be honest with you and not for hire as well unless you want a hat to wear that cost more than you can imagine. I do have a graphic artist however that is simply the best. Now having said that he is not the best imaginary artist and is from Romania and so its sometimes a test to translate what one country or culture veiws into what another does. I am not even artistic but he is patient and will take what he thinks you wish and give you 10 versions of it and if you are like me and have to design piece meal as you cannot conceptualize it all at once, then he is your man and he works in the price of the Romanian economy and that makes his work affordable to poor folks like me and a steal for rich ones that pretend to be hard up.

Now you ask so I will tell. I thought you had way too much content on the front page and it should be more a teaser and also something that is coherant and flowing and theme like and then enticing to want them to come in. Then to allow at least limited content on the actual forum is never a bad idea and then you may get more to register. Also you can limit the number of visits, views and much more from your teaser page into the main with a reminder as well as the visits with out post.

Having said that you may hire my wife to get you a concept as she is an artist but she cannot do it then on the computer and you would still need Paul for that and she is also a pet lover from hell and would give it her all. Out animals get better treatment that I do for sure.

You have a noble cause and I just think a more mature theme would be more fitting. I would like to suggest then photoPost and then you choose the stand alone or the vbintregrated one and you would choose the later and you would have a great gallery that all pet lovers would love and you need support so you have to sell products that you endorse or else sell gallery realestate or something unless you have the coin to support it yourself.

[KTBleeding]

Sorry, I didn't mean to mislead you with my links. I am not saying that your site should be like the ones I listed. I was merely adding onto GFXHelps suggestion. You asked him for examples, and I answered it for him.

My links were merely pointing to the more popular sites for pets / pet enthusiasts to give ideas for your site style.

I don't want to sound rude, but the current state of your site is something that anyone with ~$200 can do. Purchase and install vB, install vBa, mess around slightly with the theme, and you're good to go.

Your site also assumes that most of the visitors are familiar with (the extremely non-friendly user interface of) vBadvanced, and vBulletin. It really narrows down your audience quite a bit. A ton of people don't understand confusing forums that are loaded with all the bells and whistles, and they get intimidated and scared off at first glance. User friendly design almost eliminates any worry in that field, in my opinion.

[Gladhatter]

Originally Posted by KTBleeding

Sorry, I didn't mean to mislead you with my links. I am not saying that your site should be like the ones I listed. I was merely adding onto GFXHelps suggestion. You asked him for examples, and I answered it for him.

My links were merely pointing to the more popular sites for pets / pet enthusiasts to give ideas for your site style.

I don't want to sound rude, but the current state of your site is something that anyone with ~$200 can do. Purchase and install vB, install vBa, mess around slightly with the theme, and you're good to go.

Your site also assumes that most of the visitors are familiar with (the extremely non-friendly user interface of) vBadvanced, and vBulletin. It really narrows down your audience quite a bit. A ton of people don't understand confusing forums that are loaded with all the bells and whistles, and they get intimidated and scared off at first glance. User friendly design almost eliminates any worry in that field, in my opinion.

KT has nailed it! In a nut shell a mature audience are as a rule the lease qualified navigators and the most prideful and will just leave and never say why. They need spoon fed and baby sit with DIGNITY if you are to capture and keep them. You also have to have something they want and to find it where you offer needs to give them " Bragging Rights" so to speak. KT is also spot on that 200-300 bux and anyone can have what you have and also for about the same coin or a bit more and the right designer, you can have what you really need. That is understated elegance and pizazz and class and first class and first in class as well. You are dealing with pets and for many people that is the same as their kids and for others the same as the grandkids are to a spoiling grand mother.

Your site needs a lot of work and in fact a full rework but it would be worth it due to the fact that it is the kind of site with some value.

I do not know what your intentions for it is or your goals or if you have any but as it is is just a collage of randomness with no fluidity and yet it could be grand. Maybe KT is the person that could take you there I am not sure.

[Talk-Pets]

My skills and the people?s helping out skills are not to make it as it could be. No doubt there. So where do I find the person who can and will do it without scamming and without dragging it on for ages?
*** Removed ***

We have goals and visions for the board and think we can in time make it an even better site. Sadly some of the things we intentionally did not want, seems to be needed for a pet board to make it which I personally find sad - but perhaps thats just the way is.

Again, all suggestions and inputs are welcomed *** Removed ***

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Please do not use the review forum to hire people.

[Talk-Pets]

I?m sorry

[Gladhatter]

You know I have not heard the word scammed in 20 years until I came to this forum and since then all I hear about from buyers and sellers is SCAMED! This is some kind of poor testimonial to the relationships being developed.

I think you first need to go the the Paid services section of the forum and to there post your request for help and then when you get 50 emails or PM's saying how many will help you, sort through them and toss the ones that start out with the cost for the job as they have no concept of what the job is. Second you hire someone first of all that is a project coodinator of sorts that may or may not be the same person you hire for the work or may be a technical writter and get them to compose your to do list for you and a technical over view of the work to be done as it will likely involve at least two different people one being a designer and or artist and another being a coder to make that art work for you.

You may wish also to set your jobs in mile stones so that it comes out in small chunks and that way you do not get SCAMMED for some larger job but insted realize that what many think is a scam is a programmer thinking his client is full of scope creep and the client that was unable to describe in detail what they wished or wishing to add to what they find is possible and deirable then wishes that work for free when it was never agreed to originally.

I would like to see your work go forward and you site become a booming success. However you have to get into reality and know it cost and cost dearly to run large active sites and requires professional managment and some times you get that for free and some times you do not and you generally get what you pay for. If you want a no selling site then break up the for sell items in a seperate area and make a disconnect between them.

First thing you do is decide what you want to do and or hire someone to figgure out what you wish to do by hiring them to bounce it off of them and that is a technical writer that may or may not be a coder but you pay for the project details first and then programmers and artist will know what they are bidding on and you decide how much they should bid on and then pay them in stages of completions called mile stones.

Check out also sites like get a free lancer and renta coder .com both have short commings but you have to shop wisely.

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Also I wish to add here without judgement if your skills are the people helping out kind and you wish to have them that do not drag it out for ages and not wishing to be scammed, are either naieve as to how things work or else you are potentially going to scam some one likely unintentionally yourself as you think you are going to get some professional level of a site from vols. Not likely at all.

Two types of buyers. One has more time than money and thus they shop wisely and get good results over a prolonged time.

The other has more money than time than they have money. If you have the more money then hire an attorney and a technical writter and a business counselor and then have them to work with a coder and artist. If you have more time than money find who on your site can help you find the solutions you seek and write up a general outline of what you need and announce to your coder at the beginning to price the job for 50 or 75 or 100% scope creep as you really cannot define with specificity what EXACTLY thier job description will be.

Then when all is done realize that there are a multitude of free mods out there and a good and honest coder will tell you about them and install them for a few pennies or free with a larger job.

Communications however is the key to success. Also realize that most of the coders on the paid service site seem to be from 3rd world economies and many of them as a result do scam due to desperation but many are honest people that work cheap by your standards but they too do not wish to be taken advantage of. Start small with one of them and build a relationship with them. Schedule the work to be done in a time specific range so they do not take the job out of desperation with no real chance of doing it when agreed to due to excessive work load already. Again break it up in chunks and go slow. The idea you do not want it to drag on forever is one that I am not sure about as during that period you call forever is going to be the same lenght of time where you are working on it of still looking for some one and if you are working on it with an optimistic attititude then you may well get it done by then and if you are still looking that time will have passed and it still will not have gotten done.

Think about it.

[Talk-Pets]

I hope you feel better now Gladhatter

When first purchased our VB board we did the clicking and getting to know it all by ourself. As time went by and we started getting braver and saw what others have on their board, we started looking for changes. Some we have been able to do ourself. Some has required some assistance. And for that we have payed every single time and have had a succesful teamwork with the people involved.

But when first asking for help, we received quite a lot of warnings. Some through this site, others was mailed to us. Now wheter you have been a victim of scamming or not, I am sure that to those who have experienced it for whatever reason, they feel really bad about it and perhaps wished that someone would have warned them or helped them out in what to expect and how to get it

Those warnings we received helped us stear clear of the some of the people contacting us offering to do the jobs we offered. And for that I am thankful.

The posts in here was not meant as a job offering but to show of the work we have done and hired help has done to our site. Some will look at it and comment that they like it. Others will take a look and see something missing or that something added will make a change in a positive way. *** Again removed ***

For now, we already have a project comming and we have already and before this thread was made hired someone to do this. That is not what this topic was or is about at all. *** And again ***

I can not help but feel that your post is a bit..... angry? or self-righteous - but perhaps I am wrong and if so I appologise. Maybe you should think back to when you were a newbie and had to learn and perhaps communicate in a different language if that has ever happend?
With a site that is not even a year old yet and all of us on there having to learn from scratch, I think we are doing ok. And that we wanted to show off on here - nothing less - nothing more

Perhaps when we are completly done or have something new and exciting we will try and show our site of on here again. Time will tell but if so, if I am the poster again I will deff be a lot more careful with my wording and who I comment to. We dont want anyone having a heartattack just because of a message board now do we