Review my site (www.armour.ws) - Armoured Vehicles

[Blue-Inc]

My site: http://armour.ws
Forum: http://armour.ws/community

The site is dedicated to providing articles & information on armoured military vehicles while also providing news updates which relates to the site itself.

I've been finding it really hard to get my forum active... I mean people sign up, but don't post.

Is there also a vB4 Bridge for wordpress? That would be an interesting concept.

Thanks!! Hope you like the design!

[kamcreation]

do search the forums i think a couple of persons have found a solution

the following post may be helpful

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showpost....83&postcount=2
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...rdpress+Bridge

[metalguy639]

The wordpress bridges that are out currently from what I remember are kinda buggy at best and difficult to install. The only thing the wordpress bridges usually allow is cross posting which means that if you put a post in wordpress it will also show in the forum. If people comment in wordpress it shows in the thread on the forum, but you cannot make a post/thread on the forum and have it show in wordpress. I've yet to see that function.

As for the site the wordpress design looks nice, simple and clean. Personally if I were you I would hire someone to make your forum look exactly like the wordpress skin or code the wordpress skin into the forum skin. It is possible to do. That would probably greatly improve the look and feel of the forum and make it seem as though it belonged to the site.

As far as getting your forum active, its not an easy chore at all. Most likely the ones who are signing up may be spam accounts, this may be the reason for no posting or they may just not hold enough interest to post. You may try making the posts/threads something they want to respond to. Try running a competition and offer a prize. Make sure that you put your link in link directories, or exchange links with others who have similar forums etc.

[Blue-Inc]

Thanks.

I've tried making posts to what I think people would respond to, but I can't think of anything else.

I've even considered closing down the forum and just running the website, but if at-all anything I would really like to continue the forums.

I was thinking of doing a conversion, but the cost involved would probably be too much as I've currently spent a lot on other websites I have. Though maybe in the future if I continue the forums.

Also I will test out those plugins! Thanks a bunch!

[metalguy639]

When you say conversion what do you mean exactly? Are you talking about the skin itself, or something else?

If you mean the skin the cost would probably depend on who you hired. Different designers charge different prices obviously. You can find some really cheap ones, but I'd be a bit leery most of them will rip you off if they come across too cheap from what I've heard.

[FunnyMan]

did visit your forum today....overall it is out of the box vbulletin design still...looks like you have already started working on the header and it is coming up good...

good luck!

[0ptima]

i would add a photo gallery. You can then discuss photos in your gallery, etc

[JacquiiDesigns]

The main site theme looks really good. It's clean and simple and well-organized - I suppose it's WP?

The forum skin, however, is mediocre. I would suggest that you at minimum, skin your forum to match the main site theme. This way when users are browsing from mainsite to forum, the continuity is intact.

The idea is to have a site and forum where you cannot distinguish between the WP install and the vB install.

The good news is that your site theme is fairly simple. The bad news is that vB 4.x stylevar system isn't simple or user-friendly IMO anyway. So it may take a bit of work to match theme and skin.

You may be able to find someone familiar with vB 4 styling to skin your forum at a reasonable cost.

Good luck!

Jacquii.

[Blue-Inc]

Originally Posted by 0ptima

i would add a photo gallery. You can then discuss photos in your gallery, etc

Haha thanks for this idea. I'm going to implement a wordpress gallery page of different galleries. Take this as an example:
http://armour.ws/pictures-of-the-j-20/ Except expanded as a category with gallery pictures.

I would like to add a vBulletin gallery as well. But I'm not so sure on the forum right now tbh. I'm not sure if I should even give it a shot as it is hard filling my website with content as it is, let alone adding images for the forum too.

Originally Posted by JacquiiCooke

The main site theme looks really good. It's clean and simple and well-organized - I suppose it's WP?

The forum skin, however, is mediocre. I would suggest that you at minimum, skin your forum to match the main site theme. This way when users are browsing from mainsite to forum, the continuity is intact.

The idea is to have a site and forum where you cannot distinguish between the WP install and the vB install.

The good news is that your site theme is fairly simple. The bad news is that vB 4.x stylevar system isn't simple or user-friendly IMO anyway. So it may take a bit of work to match theme and skin.

You may be able to find someone familiar with vB 4 styling to skin your forum at a reasonable cost. But yeah you guys are right, I should get the design converted or whatever its called into my main site and also integrated. That might help out a great deal more.

Good luck!

Jacquii.

Yeah the forum skin is default nearly and I changed the logo. (I haven't really done much)

As for the "reasonable cost", your reasonable cost might be different to my reasonable cost. You guys are right though, I should get my forum integrated, converted or redesigned (?) to look like my main website. Maybe later though, unless you guys do it for free.

[JacquiiDesigns]

Originally Posted by Blue-Inc

Haha thanks for this idea. I'm going to implement a wordpress gallery page of different galleries. Take this as an example:
http://armour.ws/pictures-of-the-j-20/ Except expanded as a category with gallery pictures.

I would like to add a vBulletin gallery as well. But I'm not so sure on the forum right now tbh. I'm not sure if I should even give it a shot as it is hard filling my website with content as it is, let alone adding images for the forum too.




Yeah the forum skin is default nearly and I changed the logo. (I haven't really done much)

As for the "reasonable cost", your reasonable cost might be different to my reasonable cost. You guys are right though, I should get my forum integrated, converted or redesigned (?) to look like my main website. Maybe later though, unless you guys do it for free.

In vB 3.x I could have the style matching in 3-4 hours max - but not so in vB 4.x - not for me anyway. Reasonable? I would say $25/hour would be generous. Of course I'm a hobbiest designer

I suppose there's nothing wrong with posting a thread in the Request for Paid Services section to see what type of bids you get for the request though