Webmaster Forum Re-design

It looks good overall and there are no technical problems. Here are a couple of suggestions which may be helpful ;

- You should consider extending the width of the forum a little bit more

- The pale yellow color maybe replaced with a stonger color

- You may want to make the Forum Titles in bold

Good Luck !

I agree with F15 that the titles should be bold. They need to stand out more from the text below. Maybe recolour the menu in the top so it stands out more from the background.

The bolding is a good idea. Thanks. The yellow (gold), however matches my site SearchBliss, which I like, and I don't want to redesign the entire site again so soon.

That looks like a pretty good redesign. The only thing I don't like about it is that the bars where it says Topic Author Replies Read Last Post
are a bit pixely. That's an oppinion nothing technically wrong with it.

I hate it. Could use a complete redesign- colors are bright and unattractive.

I think this is better but still not up to the level it could be. It is true that the competition in this niche don't have great looking sites either, but they've also got huge user bases and tons of activity. So it doesn't matter so much for them. If you want to stand out from the crowd a new design would be really beneficial.

What forum software is this? It doesn't look familiar to me. Is there a benefit to using this over one of the more popular packages? The good thing about the more mainstream software is that it's easy to find pre-made skins or people who are able to help you create a better one for your forum. This one does look a little, ummm.... old school for me. I don't know, the design just looks outdated. If you replaced those folder icons with something a little more modern looking it would be helpful.

Since you are the only moderator, the moderator column should be removed from the home page.

Is there a way to get back to your main pages from the forum? I can't find it, the logo isn't clickable.
The fact you are hiding the links in teh status bar on those top links is a worry, what are you trying to hide? thought only porn and affiliate sites did that. I personally don't trust any site that hides link location.

On a crappy screen your links (in the forum layout) are very light, they look more like text than links, maybe bold or maybe just darker.
The number of posts/views etc might look better centered alround, being top center just looks a little misplaced.

by hiding links I meant hiding link locations - window.status=
Is an old porn site trick, they used a legite looking link when really it was an affiliate link or something.

the change isn't showing in firefox, is just blank

This is how the forum is scripted. It is obvious that it is what it is, not porn links or affiliate links.

Calm down, just telling as it is.
A lot of newbies get stung from porn sites, you know the auto diallers that get downloaded ... first thing they learn is to watch status bar for location.
If you're not worried about it, don't worry about it, I was just pointing it out so you knew.
Peace, love and moon beams

I think verdana looks pretty ugly when big. Trebuchet MS is my font of the moment. I know it's not viewable for older machines but you can set up good ol' Arial as a back up.

I personally don't like the colours, they're a bit too '70s. I'd much rather see brighter, pastel look colours. Maybe a light blue?

I think the thing to do is to ask what you current members think, and have a poll on here. No one likes criticism but ultimatly if you don't listen and adapt to what people say, you won't get anywhere.

I hate to sound like i'm having a go but it seems like you are defending your opinion rather than acknowledging the critiques. My advice would be to try a few test pages with different colours/fonts/ideas and send us the links.

Cheers,

-Rob

I spent a couple of mins changing the colours...

http://www.vintagebridalcars.co.uk/searchbliss_webmaster_forums.htm

the images aren't showing

I like your site... it's easy to read and follow. there is ALOT of content though and sometimes less is more... but it seems to be working for you.

I like the colours. But they get a bit lost in the sea of white background on 1024 x 768 res. Maybe you can set the witdth of the column to 100% like TWF or even use a very light background tint to offset it. I think it will be easier to read.

Blue