Survive Z-Day

[n.stanley]

Keen for some feedback for a website I've been working on. Will pretty much duplicate what I've posted on the vbulletin.com forums, just because it's easier. Haven't got any feedback there yet, so thought I'd ask here! Currently trying to brainstorm some advertising ideas to actually show people the site...

SURVIVEZDAY.COM



Purpose
The purpose of Survive Z-Day is to teach people how to survive in the event of a natural of man-made disaster. In this day and age the majority of the Western population are completely dependent on the system to keep them alive. In the event of a natural or man-made disaster, the system can be disrupted or completely collapses, which results in the deaths of many people who rely completely on other people to provide them with water, food and shelter.

Access the forum and further areas of the site using these details:
Username: vbulletinorg
Password: password

Screenshot



Goals
We at Survive Z-Day aim to bring the subject of survivalism into the mainstream, and give the survivalist mentality and skill sets structure. We believe the majority of the population in first world countries are alarmingly unprepared to survive, should a disaster disrupt the systems which provide the necessities of life. Our goal is to give as many people as possible the ability to survive, should the worst happen; to provide a virtual "how-to" handbook on how to survive the end of civilisation.

Trials
Customising vBulletin was insanely difficult to get used to. We had a very set idea on how we wanted it to look, but vBulletin seemed to have been created in a way that allows people to customise certain colours and perhaps the site's logo if they tried hard enough, but was very stubborn when it came to creating an entirely new "theme". Survive Z-Day now looks so different from the majority of vBulletin-powered websites that you'd have to look quite closely to know that it is.

Addons Used
None, to my knowledge. Although we've created a custom "Bug Out Bag" application on the website that allows you to build you own survival kit. Check it out: http://survivezday.com/content.php/132-bug-out-bag

Screenshot

[TheLastSuperman]

Could you create a dummy profile for some to login with? Restrict all permissions except viewing, I only mention that as currently you can view the CMS and content but not the forum. The CMS redesign looks great and this is one of the few styles that I actually wanted to see how the forum was styled, without seeing the forum I'll go with not too shabby .

[n.stanley]

Originally Posted by TheLastSuperman

Could you create a dummy profile for some to login with? Restrict all permissions except viewing, I only mention that as currently you can view the CMS and content but not the forum. The CMS redesign looks great and this is one of the few styles that I actually wanted to see how the forum was styled, without seeing the forum I'll go with not too shabby .

Done!
Username: vbulletinorg
Password: password

I can accept "not too shabby" . Thanks!

[findingpeace]

Cool idea! The skin is fantastic, and very unique. Fits the site content perfectly. The forum looks good, although I think you could modify the default forum icons to truly set your theme apart.

I'm behind a pretty fast company connection and still found the page to load pretty slowly. Is this due to your custom theme, or did you experience it with the vanilla 4.2 install?

[DivisionByZero]

this is a great concept, and not at all far-fetched. How much longer can our society sustain itself at our current self-destructive pace? :-\

[n.stanley]

Originally Posted by findingpeace

Cool idea! The skin is fantastic, and very unique. Fits the site content perfectly. The forum looks good, although I think you could modify the default forum icons to truly set your theme apart.

I'm behind a pretty fast company connection and still found the page to load pretty slowly. Is this due to your custom theme, or did you experience it with the vanilla 4.2 install?

Thank you so much! I agree, having some customised forum icons would really top it all off.
EDIT: Sorry, regarding the slow low I'm not sure. It's hosted on an Australian server, maybe it's something to do with that?

Originally Posted by DivisionByZero

this is a great concept, and not at all far-fetched. How much longer can our society sustain itself at our current self-destructive pace? :-\

I'm really happy to hear you've actually considered the content, I haven't had nearly enough feedback on it yet. It is quite an intimidating prospect, but the more people who become aware of our reliance on the system, the more can survive when it breaks.

[n.stanley]

Revamped the template recently; check out the new version: http://survivezday.com or view screenshots above.

vBulletin.org users may be particularly interested in the "build you own survival kit" feature located on the Bug Out Bag page.