by I would like to ask you what your goal is with the forum. This is because when I scan the forum, I notice that you have a variety of forums, each with a different purpose. Whilst this is normally no bad thing, this gives me (and potential members) the impression you're trying to tackle too many things at once. You have advertising, general discussion and other services all wrapped up into one place. If anything, it's either going to put members off joining or make your staff very tired (unless each one has a separate forum to be staff of). I suggest just focusing on the first few forums in the 'about us' category and the 'forum's service' category.
With that out of the way, let's have a look at your graphics (I know this is oft-said, but I figured saying it this way would lead to a better structure
). These graphics remind me of something else... oh yes! I know an advertising forum with exactly the same horizontal bar, background and 'new posts' (etc) images. The banner is of course, unique, but questionable. Why are you using Forumotion's mascot to advertise your own site through the banner? If I were you, I would instead try to make your own mascot and while you're at it, rename the site to 'forum services' or similar so that it doesn't look like you're trying to capitalise off Forumotion. I don't mean this in a nasty way - it's just that it could be taken in the wrong way by some. Also, try to give the site its own theme. I suggest green, as blue is a bit too frequently used these days.
While you're at it, add some coding that smoothes out the site. For example, there is a code that hides the legend of the post icons, saying what each one means (The one at the bottom of the site). I suggest adding this code because your forum icons have 'new' and suchlike written in them, making it already easy to identify what they mean, making the legend a bit redundant.
The swirly image code is fun to play with, but perhaps a bit much.
Side note: Is there supposed to be such a large space between 'log in' and 'register'? If not, best look into this.
Your activity's one of the other main things. From looking at your top 20 posters, all members so far have been on in 24 hours. However, only the 'admin' has 40 posts (This is you, yes?). Nobody else is near this. Most of the members have less than 10 posts. Host some kind of competition to raise posting activity and site awareness.
Finally, there are a few things I'd like to say. They're small, but any alteration could have unimaginable good consequences. LEt's start with one of the first little things I saw: you offer services for something like 20+ dollars. This sounds like you're trying to use real money, and to be honest, I would never pay $20 for something like that! If you're actually using forum money, make this clear as the distinction between the two would be invaluable to attracting new members.
Secondly, the table ads on the homepage message doesn't seem to stretch all the way to the bottom of the table. Extending this and/or making it look more uniform with the news feature on the right will make the forum more professional.
Best of luck with your site. I know it's pretty new, but even a new forum has a bright future to look forward to.
Pros
- A degree of starting activity
- Good coding on the images
Cons
- Forums are in a bit of a jumble
- Site tries to do too much at once
- Theme is not unique
- Posts aren't very spread out across forums
With that out of the way, let's have a look at your graphics (I know this is oft-said, but I figured saying it this way would lead to a better structure
). These graphics remind me of something else... oh yes! I know an advertising forum with exactly the same horizontal bar, background and 'new posts' (etc) images. The banner is of course, unique, but questionable. Why are you using Forumotion's mascot to advertise your own site through the banner? If I were you, I would instead try to make your own mascot and while you're at it, rename the site to 'forum services' or similar so that it doesn't look like you're trying to capitalise off Forumotion. I don't mean this in a nasty way - it's just that it could be taken in the wrong way by some. Also, try to give the site its own theme. I suggest green, as blue is a bit too frequently used these days. While you're at it, add some coding that smoothes out the site. For example, there is a code that hides the legend of the post icons, saying what each one means (The one at the bottom of the site). I suggest adding this code because your forum icons have 'new' and suchlike written in them, making it already easy to identify what they mean, making the legend a bit redundant.
The swirly image code is fun to play with, but perhaps a bit much.
Side note: Is there supposed to be such a large space between 'log in' and 'register'? If not, best look into this.
Your activity's one of the other main things. From looking at your top 20 posters, all members so far have been on in 24 hours. However, only the 'admin' has 40 posts (This is you, yes?). Nobody else is near this. Most of the members have less than 10 posts. Host some kind of competition to raise posting activity and site awareness.
Finally, there are a few things I'd like to say. They're small, but any alteration could have unimaginable good consequences. LEt's start with one of the first little things I saw: you offer services for something like 20+ dollars. This sounds like you're trying to use real money, and to be honest, I would never pay $20 for something like that! If you're actually using forum money, make this clear as the distinction between the two would be invaluable to attracting new members.
Secondly, the table ads on the homepage message doesn't seem to stretch all the way to the bottom of the table. Extending this and/or making it look more uniform with the news feature on the right will make the forum more professional.
Best of luck with your site. I know it's pretty new, but even a new forum has a bright future to look forward to.
Pros
- A degree of starting activity
- Good coding on the images
Cons
- Forums are in a bit of a jumble
- Site tries to do too much at once
- Theme is not unique
- Posts aren't very spread out across forums
