Discreet site reviews.

[RagingPenguin]

My name is Drew and I am willing to give discreet, professional reviews of styles, similar to the one I posted in another thread recently. First, a little about me. I am a 36 year old systems administrator and developer, fully licensed and certified for both the Microsoft and various POSIX based operating systems and development platforms, including Windows, Linux, Visual Studio 5/6/.NET, Apache, PHP, and MySQL. I have been in private practice for over twelve years and took up designing my own websites five year ago. A few credits to my name, not all are forums, include the following:

http://llrocks.com - Lindsay Lohan's Official Site.
http://ashleyroseorr.net - Ashley Rose Orr's Official Site.
http://wizardingrealm.com - My own alternative Harry Potter forum.

I have registered well over twenty domains in the past five years and still retain a few of them despite thier being inactive. I will give honest, unbiased and professional reviews of your style. I will include written comments regarding several areas of the design, citing things I liked, disliked and the exact reasons why. Please note that with any review, it is subject to the reviewers point of view and isn't definitive in regards to what you should or shouldn't do with your site.

If you would like to obtain such a review, please email me at albus@wizardingrealm.com and I will gladly reply with your review. I will not publically post such reviews, however, if you would like to share said review, please feel free to post it yourself.

[Floris]

This style used to be for sale, but it no longer is available for purchase (but isn't downloadable either). So I think it is alright for me to request a review on it.

http://www.vbulletin.nl/community/?styleid=47
vBulletin.nl Professional Style Package - 1.3 for vBulletin 3.0.3 (Alternative)

I am open for suggestions, contrustive critisism and any feedback to helps me realize how good or bad it is, what I should work on to improve it, etc. Your review may be posted here in public.

Note to those who like it and want it: Sorry you are out of luck.

[RagingPenguin]

Certainly Floris, here is the review. Keep in mind that no suggestion need be taken. How good or bad the style is depends on the beholder. The below details my impressions and reactions to your style only.

First Impression:

Floris, I must say I really liked the impact the style had when first viewed. It is crisp, clean and is very well laid out. I really like the light earth tones used as it is a combination not frequently seen. The attention to small details is wonderful. For exaple, the small quarter-round corners you have in place to soften the border work wonders on thier own. I am a big supporter of the "KISS" principle.

Content:

The focus of your site was very easy to determine as your logo includes descriptive captions along with the more traditional "logo". You even provide translatory links, which is great for those who do not read english. Your welcome_guest message is thoughtfully contructed, using alignment, formatting, and excellent wording to help new users get acclimated to the site. I have not joined, nor logged on, but I would think that with this much detail, you would also have a secondary welcome_registering and welcome_member message as well. If not, consider that a suggestion as it further aides the user experience.

Features:

I like your front page alot. I think it's the most clean I've seen in a while. Simply listing active threads, a single, clear message, a few ads, and the info box, in the manner you did, is complimentary to your site and works well.

Templating:

I love the template work here. The way you used alt1 and alt2 on successive rows is a nice tweak that, by itself, isn't much, but overall adds just that extra little difference that sets a style apart. I also like the postbit changes, however, I would like to see how the use of fieldsets to contain information looks in the legacy style. This, of course, would be out of curiosity as I prefer that bit myself. The introduction of category icons on the index is also a nice little plus. Moving the navbar out of the header is a grand idea, leaving that space for the logo. I don't know how many times I have considered that myself. Your buttons and icons work follows your style accurately. They have easy to read text and are not overly large. The footer is also well thought out. I would like to see the upper right cell nowrap-ed out of personal preference however.

Detractions:


I see no detractors worth mentioning here as most are purely deviations from my personal preferences.

[Floris]

First Impression:

Floris, I must say I really liked the impact the style had when first viewed. It is crisp, clean and is very well laid out. I really like the light earth tones used as it is a combination not frequently seen. The attention to small details is wonderful. For exaple, the small quarter-round corners you have in place to soften the border work wonders on thier own. I am a big supporter of the "KISS" principle.Thank you for the quick review - and yet so complete. You have done an amazing job writing it out. Your feedback is appriciated and allow me to place a few comments. The Keep It Stupid, Simple principle is what makes a site work. You do not get a lot of data to load aside the actual content, and that is what users want I guess. Also, the way things are presented is mostly due to simple but effective tweaks to the great layout that Kier and his staff has put together for version 3. Finding a balance between what I want (and because I sold the style) and what the general public wants is the result of that what you see there. I guess that worked out quite well.


Content:

The focus of your site was very easy to determine as your logo includes descriptive captions along with the more traditional "logo". You even provide translatory links, which is great for those who do not read english. Your welcome_guest message is thoughtfully contructed, using alignment, formatting, and excellent wording to help new users get acclimated to the site. I have not joined, nor logged on, but I would think that with this much detail, you would also have a secondary welcome_registering and welcome_member message as well. If not, consider that a suggestion as it further aides the user experience.I believe adding a logo might be overkill, so I tried to get a merge between my logo and my title - and include a description instead to make sure it is clear. The first impression someone gets could determine if they continue to search or even ever want to come back. The welcome message to unregistered and new members is a small tweak that would hopefully be more informative then intrusive or even annoying. There is always quite some confusion when novice users find the site through a search engine and have no idea what a forum is, but still want to know where to find what, or what is going on. The introduction text should clear that up. Registered members of course get a different text, more information or simply see less. This depends on their activity and status on the forum. KISS principle kicks in here again. If you want to take a peek without signing up you can use the test/test account to login and browse.


Features:

I like your front page alot. I think it's the most clean I've seen in a while. Simply listing active threads, a single, clear message, a few ads, and the info box, in the manner you did, is complimentary to your site and works well. Besides the frontpage we also had a 'style' section but that is closed because the style isn't for purchase anymore. We also have a chat section so users can get live-chat with the staff and other members and guests. Quite fun, we have Kier jump in the chat once every 6 months or so. And Scott idles there or chats with us once every other month and Zachery and I are there usually and Tony from vBulletin.org/vBulletinTemplates.com and Xenon from vBulletin.org and bunch of others too. It uses the same build as the frontpage. Talking about the frontpage, this is powered by nothing more then the vBulletin features and functions. And uses the variables through templates so it generates the unique layout and inherits the style selected (or language for that matter). For those who want is: Sorry .. we have to stay unique!


Templating:

I love the template work here. The way you used alt1 and alt2 on successive rows is a nice tweak that, by itself, isn't much, but overall adds just that extra little difference that sets a style apart. I also like the postbit changes, however, I would like to see how the use of fieldsets to contain information looks in the legacy style. This, of course, would be out of curiosity as I prefer that bit myself. The introduction of category icons on the index is also a nice little plus. Moving the navbar out of the header is a grand idea, leaving that space for the logo. I don't know how many times I have considered that myself. Your buttons and icons work follows your style accurately. They have easy to read text and are not overly large. The footer is also well thought out. I would like to see the upper right cell nowrap-ed out of personal preference however. I wish I had more time to apply the alt1/2 rows instead of columns to various parts of the site. Like threadlist and forumdisplay. It isn't done throughout the site yet. But we are slowly getting there. I really like that setup more then having things in columns. But I understand why columns are picked. We allow our users to switch between the postbit and postbit_legacy by going to their user control panel. This way everybody has what they want. You can try it out using the test/test account. Oh about the navbar, if you like that - just wait for the next tweak. Yeah, the little issue with the footer is always fun. I tried to keep the things that only staff see on the second row, and the normal links on the top row. But -Top is the last one and gets moved to the second row. I wanted to save a conditional so I just didn't tweak it yet. I have a solution to do it without a conditional - I just need to be a bit less lazy.


Detractions:


I see no detractors worth mentioning here as most are purely deviations from my personal preferences.
That is good news. Sounds like I scored quite well. Thank you for visiting our site and I hope we will see you in the future again and maybe even as part of the community ;) Great review and thank you for your time.


Floris & Staff of vBulletin Fan Site

[Oblivion Knight]

Hi Drew,

I know you said to e-mail you, but since I really don't mind public opinions about my style (in fact, I'm rather intrigued) and any criticisms or suggestions are taken in to consideration for possible further changes that I could make - I don't see any problem, feel free to make the review public.. :)

Here are my 2 styles (temporarily abandoned my 3rd one);
http://www.gamerseuphoria.com/forum/index.php?styleid=1 - Default Style
http://www.gamerseuphoria.com/forum/index.php?styleid=2 - White Style

[RagingPenguin]

Here are your reviews. Keep in mind that no suggestion need be taken. How good or bad the styles are depends on the beholder. The below details my impressions and reactions to your styles only.

Default Style

Impression:

Oblivion, I recall this forum by url only from recent Board of the Month threads. This alone should be a good indicator of what I thought of it. It seems like everybody and thier grandmother runs either a clansite or gamin forum. Not all are remembered. This one I did recall. I especially like the header, which has a faux techno look to it without actually being overly technical, intricate, or gaudy. As an avid gamer, recently having purchased Battlefront, I may be a tad biased in this review. I promise to be as objective as possible.

Features:

I see you have several of the more common interactive hacks installed. As I have not used these it's hard for me to determine what, if anything, was altered about them.

Templating:

The header is wonderfull and fits well in several resolutions. The footer did not seem to have too many changes, however, the average use isn't going to care how long the page took to load or how many queries it used. Why not use a conditional to display that line only to admins and/or mods? The Gaming Platforms box is also really nice but I find the icons a tad too dark for my liking. The site is already using the darkest possible background and the subdued icons make it look even darker. It wouldn't take much brightening of the images to counter the effect without compromising the overall feel of the site, or making them look neon-like. I like the fact that you've used a vbmenu_register call to drop down the list of interactive options instead of wasting screen real estate on individual links. It doesn't appear that you've substantially altered your postbit, however, I must say that, being partial to the legacy style, your css work here really makes a post stand out. The offwhite borders are great. White probnably would've been too stark.

Detractions:

First, there are those that do run at higher than 1024x768. In those instances the fonts used in the header may be too small to read. In addition, with so much grey in the header, and so little throughout the rest of the site, it appears a tad top heavy. Possibly too much, but that's a matter of opinion.

White Style

Impression:

I had not viewed this style when I visited before and I was pleased to see a gaming site offer a light colored theme! ALmost all gaming sites invariably have a dark theme. Why is that? Remember that not all consoles are black. The early Nintendo's were off white. Be that as it may, I think I like style a touch better than the dark one.

Features:

As this is the same forum, my comments regarding features are the same as the above review.

Templating:

This is a very clean looking job. Have you set cellspacing to 0 here, or used border-collapse? The effect on the tables is great. You may want to try alternating rows as Floris did. I think that, in combination with no border lines, the result would look even more outstanding than it already does. Your icons look much better in my opinion against the lighter background than in the dark theme. I see you put the postbit user details into a fieldset. I was wondering how that would look and I like it. Mind if I use it at some point? The buttons are also really nice and readable.

Detractions:

This header, board, footer does not appear top heavey as the previous one did. I still think the header text is a little small. Regular links can have thier size overridden, but that isn't true with imaged text.

[rebelsrock06]

Serenarules: Im glad to see your own thread on this. Yours i am looking forward to its growth

How about a review on this one?
http://support.4databaseconsutling.com/ (http://support.4databaseconsutling.com/)

[RagingPenguin]

rebelsrock, I commented a bit on your static site as well as your forum attempts to integrate into the motif.

Here is your review. Keep in mind that no suggestion need be taken. How good or bad the style is depends on the beholder. The below details my impressions and reactions to your style only.

Support Forum

Impression:

Looking at this was an interesting experience. I think you've got it right when it comes to what a 'support' forum is really about. I've seen way too many 'support' forums that are really fronts for business communities, containing a great many categories and forums. Yours focuses on what it should announcements, questions and answerers. In general, the static part of the site itself is an excellent example of a business from end. Things are clearly labelled and easy on the eye. The use of images is also well done. None are overbearing and all add a sense of color and character to the front end.

Features:

I see no outstanding features or add-ons to comment on.

Templating:

There doesn't seem to be a lot of customization here. The footer is nice and clean. I also use the horizontal approach to display the status icons. Anything to bring down the overall display width and height of the board is worth doing, assuming it's time effective. Considering the limited width of your forum, I concur with your use of the new template bit. It allows for longer sentances before word wrap occurs.

Detractions:

While the overall concept, coloring, and design behind this forum is great, I would change a few things. The header image uses primarily earth tones, yet the forum icons remain pastel blue. This is a contrast that doesn't enhance the forum any. One can colorize, or have it done for them, the standard icons in almost any paint program (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc...) if you download the GDK. The second would be to introduce one or two earth tones into your forum color scheme. Not too much, only to highlight certain things. That would make it 'fit' better within the sites overal color scheme rather than appearing as a seperate, but embedded, entity.

Having, hopefully (I don't want to make an assumption), set a precendent for forum reviews, I encourage anybody who wishes to review a site, do so in the same fashio I have, or a similar one. Provide clear statements, descriptions or your reasoning, offer suggestions and make all comments positive, even if your are discussing a negative element. I ask this now because my impressions and reactions are certainly NOT definitive for a particular site. It takes a cumulative look at several reviews to properly diagnose the success of your skinning abilities. I am not vain and will never pretend to know it all. At this point, considering the amount of requests I've gotten, I'm opening up the floor now for such third party review.

Mods, if this get's out of hand, feel free to delete posts that don't adhere to the above requirements.

[Pamela]

I'm interested in a site review as well! You can just post your opinions here, I don't mind who reads it. :)

I warn you though, it's nothing fancy since I barely know what I'm doing! I'm trying though! :o

Any feedback would be appreciated!

Home Page: http://www.onlinechristianparents.com (http://www.onlinechristianparents.com/)

Forums: http://www.onlinechristianparents.com/forums/

Thank you! :)

[RagingPenguin]

Pamela, here is your review. Keep in mind that no suggestion need be taken. How good or bad the style is depends on the beholder. The below details my impressions and reactions to your style only.

Impression:

I'm pleased to see that even in the Christian community, webmasters are turning to vbulletin as thier forum of choice. This particular forum is very pleasing to the eye and doesn't overdo the typical Christian imagery. This is a plus as a lot of non-christian visitors are turned off by "in-your-face" religious messages. I will probably point this one out to the members of my own church.

Content:

I was immediately able to determine the content type and topic subjects. I think the organization needs a little work though. Perhaps moving the Announcements topics to the top, followed by the Welcome topics. This way visitors can see them without having to scroll down.

Features:

This site offers the common bank and store combination for that added touch of interactivity. I am not sure that gimmicks like this are required on a forum, however, that is intrinsically there for a greater good and do not tend to lend themselves to idle chat.

Templaing:

I didn't see a whole lot of templating changes except for those to the header and the footer. The header was excellently done and well balanced. I found the footer a bit off though as it took a moment before I realized the scrolling area at the bottom was a shoutbox. The work done on a few custom pages, such as the Fundraiser page, was a nice touch. I was fully expecting to be taken to a topic list.

Detractions:

The major detraction for me was the large icons used in the forum descriptions. Perhaps if they were all the same relative size and didn't throw the text off so much, they wouldn't be so bad. With status icons already in place, I don't see the point. The minor detraction was the floating "Jesus Saves" text. While a nice piece of javascript, it serves no real purpose for the end user and winds up simply being a distraction, if not a showstopper for older browsers that can't handle it.

[Pamela]

This particular forum is very pleasing to the eye and doesn't overdo the typical Christian imagery. This is a plus as a lot of non-christian visitors are turned off by "in-your-face" religious messages.
Thank you so much! We did try to find a nice balance between looking “Christian enough” and “too Christian” by trying not to overdo the religious imagry, so I am happy to hear that! :)


I will probably point this one out to the members of my own church.
Oh yes...please do! The more the merrier! :D



Perhaps moving the Announcements topics to the top, followed by the Welcome topics. This way visitors can see them without having to scroll down.
Good point! We used to have it that way and then bumped up our fundraiser forum for a bit of “promotion” (because we're poor! lol) and then never did change it back. I’ll be definitely making that change. Thank you for pointing that out to me!



This site offers the common bank and store combination for that added touch of interactivity. I am not sure that gimmicks like this are required on a forum, however, that is intrinsically there for a greater good and do not tend to lend themselves to idle chat.
Yeah our members like to have a few fun extras, so the Board Store was very well received. I tried not to overdo the add-ons though, so I just added a Store and Pet hack, since I didn’t want to distract too much from the purpose of the forum (for example an Arcade, while fun, would take people away from our Bible studies which is a priority in our forums).




The header was excellently done and well balanced.
Thank you! Another member here recently reviewed my site and didn’t really like my header so I’m so happy to hear that!


I found the footer a bit off though as it took a moment before I realized the scrolling area at the bottom was a shoutbox.
Yes, it used to be on the top of the forums and it drove people nuts trying to scroll past it. But since some members really liked it we figured we’d move it to the bottom and out of the way a bit.




The work done on a few custom pages, such as the Fundraiser page, was a nice touch.

Thank you! I would prefer to have them a bit fancier but I'm just amazed that I was even able to figure out how to make a new vBulletin page! I’m really new at all of this so that’s about the best I can do for now!


The major detraction for me was the large icons used in the forum descriptions. Perhaps if they were all the same relative size and didn't throw the text off so much, they wouldn't be so bad.
I like them actually (I’m a girly-girl so I think they’re cute! :p ) but you make a good point about making them all about the same size. When I have some extra free time, I might look around for some replacement smilies.



The minor detraction was the floating "Jesus Saves" text. While a nice piece of javascript, it serves no real purpose for the end user and winds up simply being a distraction, if not a showstopper for older browsers that can't handle it.
LOL…then you would have really hated it when it was on every page! :p I wanted a little extra touch so I thought it was cute but decided to put it just on the main forum page where people aren’t trying to read replies and see them floating by every few seconds! Maybe it’ll help if I reduce the number that float down…so then it would just be a tiny accent instead of so noticeable.


Anyway, thank you so much for your very detailed and thoughtful review! I appreciate you taking the time to point out specifics of what you liked and didn’t like (rather than just saying “I liked it” or “hated it”) as that gives me something concrete to work with.

Thank you again so much! :D

[RagingPenguin]

Pamela, one thing to consider regarding the floating text, some older browsers simply cannot run such scripts. Some of the really old ones may even crash the page, rendering it unviewable to them. This would rule out a whole segment of your possible viewers from even seeing the site. Here's a suggestion. Surround the template code that links in that js script with the following conditional.



<if condition="!$show['old_explorer']">
<!-- place the hardcoded or linked in script here -->
</if>


This will at least help keep the client failures down to a bare minimum.

[RagingPenguin]

My turn. Would somebody please comment on the following preview of a new style I am working on. Please note that this style remains unselectable on the site itself as I've only just started coding it. Please comment only on what you can see in this image. No portals or add-ons of any kind are being used other than a small hack I wrote for the collapse/expand routines and another for a specialized mouse over on the left hand menus.

Preview (http://wizardingrealm.com/images/preview.jpg)

[rebelsrock06]

404 error

[RagingPenguin]

Sorry, I'll explain why shortly.

[Pamela]

Pamela, one thing to consider regarding the floating text, some older browsers simply cannot run such scripts. Some of the really old ones may even crash the page, rendering it unviewable to them. This would rule out a whole segment of your possible viewers from even seeing the site. Here's a suggestion. Surround the template code that links in that js script with the following conditional.



<if condition="!$show['old_explorer']">
<!-- place the hardcoded or linked in script here -->
</if>


This will at least help keep the client failures down to a bare minimum.

Thank you so much! I made the change! :)

[RagingPenguin]

Pamela, you're more than welcome.

rebelsrock06, The reason you got the 404 is because the host is twofold. One, I decided to move the board into a vbtest folder in order to skin it without users browsing it. I put up a temp ipb board to keep them happy in the meantime. Two, the host is having intermittent problems with my server right now. Once the the server issue is resolved I will report a link. My apologies for not being around the last two days or so, but this is why. I am working on getting these things resolved before I do anything else.

Please, continue to review each others site in the manner I have laid out.

[DarknessDivine]

Okay why not?
http://epettalk.com (http://epettalk.com/) (home)
http://epettalk.com/forums/index.php?

[rebelsrock06]

if you like you can email me the preview jpg and ill privately PM you about it and once you fix the problems you are having with your baords then we can post publicly

[Tim Mousel]

Hi,

Would be great if you could review:

www.defend.net (http://www.defend.net)

and

www.defend.net/online/ (http://www.defend.net/online/) (new part of site I'm currently working on so not all the links work)

www.defend.net/deluxeforums/ (http://www.defend.net/deluxeforums/) (vbulletin)


Don't mind a public posting.

Thanks,

Tim

[RagingPenguin]

With all due respect, this holiday season, and other things, have left me with little free online time. I will catch up soon though. Untill then maybe another viable member can offer a review? I was hoping that by introducing this style of review, others would join in and begin a "community review" thread. Instead, I got stuck with the chore, so if you're willing to wait a few days, I promise to get back to you.

Thanks!

[Tim Mousel]

Understood! Take your time and if you or anyone else does the review that would be great!

Happy Holidays!

Tim

[blindchild02]

www.xamira.net/forums :p

[RagingPenguin]

I sincerely apologize for letting this go. I have busy and had hoped people would start reviewing each others sites in the manner laid out. As it is, I'll try to cintue this when I have time.

Tim:

I found your header very nice overall. You could stand to make the text on your buttons (Classes, Store, etc...) stand out a tad more, perhaps a 3d rounded bevel? Now this isn't a big deal, but from a creative standpoint, the white flare in the top part of your header would illuminate the top part of the buttons, but you have the bottoms highlighted while the tops remain in shadow. That should logically be the other way around, unless this is the effect you specifically want.

The wasn't really a footer per se, but I like the fact that you stuck your advertising there instead of wasting space up top. Something I do here though is edit the copyright phrase and remove the <br /> so it all appears on one line. Often this makes things look better. I'd have to see it on your site before deciding though. At the very least, it would make the first line wider than the second, giving a tapering off effect.

Separating off the archives and sponsors is a good idea. I never quite liked the little sponsor images nested among all the other stuff regular forum sport.

I was confused a bit at the first category's name though. Obviously the whole site is based around "Martial Arts". To have a section also with that title, in addition to others, makes one wonder what aspect of martial arts it's on. I get the feeling "General Discussion" would be a better title.

There wasn't much css or image customization to speak of, and while that may not go over so well with those who also run boards, to the lay person, it's a plus as they are familiar with it.

All in all you have a nice board. A lot of information and chances to participate in various activities.

blindchild02:

Very nice! This color sceme makes me think of the Xbox, even though it's not related. Guess what though? I've said it before, but familiarity is an important factor in designing a site. I love the skin customizations. Very fluid and smooth. The lack of table cellspacing works well with your style.

I'm not sure I understand the need for a shoutbox though. It's almost redundant, like a mini-forum inside the main forums. I prefer the PM system for getting a particular message across.

Both the header and footer are very complimentary and done really well. They are symetric graphically and content is well balanced. I would personally like to see the ads moved to the footer, but that's only a personal quirk.

Great job.

Now...if somebody would be so kind, I have spent the last two weeks renovation my own site in preparation for yesterdays re-opening. I have 5 primary skin, in addition to the stock skin, which I would like comments on. Can anybody oblidge?

http://wizardingrealm.com

[bigike]

I'm not a professional, but, even though I am not a fan of Harry Potter (I like the movies, I'm just not hardcore), I love your skin. The Hogwarts primary skin is awesome, I love all the colors, and the wooden "finish" on the tables is great. I wish I could give you a longer review, but I can't point out any things that I didn't like (except the Muggles forum, which appears to be the standard vBulletin forum style). The rest is absolutely job well done. Looks like you spent a long time working on those forums, it definetely shows.

[RagingPenguin]

Thanks! Any comment at all is good. I left the stock skin as is intentionally for dial ups. :)

[cgjackson2001]

Hi,

i'm looking for someone to review my forum at http://www.dzineforum.com.

I'm open to suggestions, contrustive critisism, and any other feedback that would help me to improve on the forum. If you would like you can post your review here or email it at cgjackson2001@yahoo.co.uk.

I'm also after some moderators for the site.

Thanks,
Chris

[RagingPenguin]

Chris, you have a very nice site there. Neutral colors work really well. You didn't stry too much from the stock skin, save the header, footer and obvious customization to FORUMHOME templates, which is good. Less to revert on upgrade. The tcat and thead effects are really nice as well. I would do a few things though, finish changing the stock icons, collapse buttons, and try to get the banner ads centered vertically in the space allocated. Try adjusting the containing div padding and/or margin. When I tried to view the calendar, I got the login screen, which is ok, but you should probably put a conditional in your header to alternately hide the option for those who can't see it. I also noticed in that same screen that the panel and panel surround classes still have default colors which don't compliment the site much. I don't know if this is by design or what, but the "quicklinks" popup never shows. If you have the option off, then you should hide the button too. That's it from a techincal POV.

From a personal POV I think you have the makings of a great web design community as long as you fix the things above and keep it clean from silly hacks like the arcade which have no place on a dev site.

[Cole2026]

These reviews seem very complete, could be helpful.

Could you give me some feedback on my two styles?

http://www.tikigames.com/boards/?styleid=4
http://www.tikigames.com/boards/?styleid=3

Thanks! :)

[croft]

Ok im getting on this train to =)

http://www.croft-designs.com/forum/?styleid=35
Custom design for another forum. Would be fun to se some review of it.

http://www.croft-designs.com/forum/?styleid=29
A free style i made. Its a first person shoter style.

http://www.croft-designs.com/forum/?styleid=30
And this style.

Would be realy nice with some reviews of them =)

[RagingPenguin]

bfoot45,

I looked at both styles and liked both very much. I think I liked "Blue Shutter" better. THe other one had a few graphics that were a little off. The rounded blue edges in your navbar template aren't nearly as smooth as they could be and the avatar image flickers on mouseover. There also seems to be a dotted line that runs along the top of the navbar template and vetically seperating the login/pm cell. My sight isn't that good and I had a hard time reading the fancy small lettering in the menu item images just under the logo. I'm not the only person with bad eyesight, so I'd fix that above all else. You've limited your hacks to a minimumm which is good, using just what you need. Your postbit in the Blue Shutter style is really good.

All in all, a great site, just a few minor things to fix, and it's an A+.

[RagingPenguin]

Croft,

Babblers Fluid

Very nice clean style. Simple but effective header. Wonderful icon and button work! Not much else changed in this style.

Ghost Recon

Nice but not as good as the first one. Again, simple but effective header abd decent icon/button work. A few things threw me on this one. At first I thought it was too wide for my screen because the thing is right aligned with the screen edge. Not sure that's a good move. The collapse icons you added to the navbar, what's going on, and footer don't work (may be intentional) and there seems to be some intermittant border/spacing problems with your tables. Shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

bluey

This is the best of the three. I really liked this one. Nice neutral colors, freat icon/button work, header and footer both well done. My only gripe is that the index welcome box doesn't conform or line up correctly. Try making that match the rest and this one's a winner.

[lighterrr]

I'll like a review as well.

http://www.plecofanatics.com

I'm using the original style but i changed the colours.

[RagingPenguin]

lighterr,

You have an interesting and unusual topic there. Pleco is a specific breed of fish then? Learn something new everyday. Catering to such a specific niche get's a plus in my book. It show's you're in it for the love of the topic and not some other reason.

I won't go into detail on the portal since I don't know whether or not it's a vbhack or not, but on the whole it's very nice and clean. I'd put a small textual navbar under the logo myself, but what you have works.

As you said the forum itself doesn't stray from the stock style too much. Your colors don't even stray that much, just different hues of blue. YOu did make a good effort in customizing some of the icons, but I feel you could go a bit farther and complete the set. You have a nice slim set of categories and forums without a lot of fluff. A place for everything and everything in it's place.

I'm not sure your clientelle would be very impressed with an excessively graphical style, and your colors do match the environment. I think you have a great community there. I'd just finish the icons and buttons, perhaps make the buttons little aquariums with text in them, and the statusicons Pleco icons, smilie style? Just suggestions.

If I were a fan of this breed of fish, I would definately post there regardless, even in it's current state. Very nice.

[camoman]

Great reviews!

Ok I know my site needs some work.. maybe diffrent colors or organizing?!?! The thing is I am not sure what to do next and am hoping you can help with that. :)

www.trackshare.com (http://www.trackshare.com)

Thanks :)

-Curtis

[Blue Moose Aaron]

I know you're getting swamped, but after reading your responses to others I would like to see what you have to say about my site. http://www.thekryptonian.com

[RagingPenguin]

I'll get you caught up this weekend guys. :)

[Blue Moose Aaron]

Cool, I can't wait!

[camoman]

Any word?? :) Looking forward to it!!!

[RagingPenguin]

Any word?? :) Looking forward to it!!!
Guys, I have to put this on hold. My workstation died recently and al I have is the server now, which is commandline only. All I have is pine and lynx to communicate with world. I am sure you don't want me to review anything based on that. Actually, I have a bit of a scenario now. I can't seem to get xorg and kde installed right on the server (freebsd) and I don't have any reasonable place to upload backups to in order to put windows on it either. I'd lose everything I have with no chance of recovery. Until I figure out what to do I will be unavailable. This includes my recent appointment to vbJudge at vbDirectory.org, though I may make a visit to the local inet pub so I can uphold those duties. Later fellas...

[Deviant++]

Heres mine :P


www.deviatedhq.com (http://www.deviatedhq.com)

[Blue Moose Aaron]

Maybe we could all pitch in and get you some internet space for the month? Has anyone any free space or money to spare?

[Deviant++]

I use company space :(

[RagingPenguin]

Guys, don't worry too much about me. The server is fine, it's just command line only, whic is why all I have is the lynx text based viewer to surf with for now. I have a new workstation on order though and it should arrive in a few days. It's a nice p4/2.8 machine with 1 gig ram etc... I'll get caught up then. Feel free to continue posting sites here for review. Just don't expect an answer until I get the new machine set up. For what it's worth, I can say that the vbulletin system in general works really well under lynx and the display isn't too bad either. I viewed a few other systems as I post in a lot of different places and I wasn't real impressed with some of the others. Maybe DIVs get messed up somehow? IPB was really confusing in lynx. The layout didn't make sense. Perhaps this is still a good indicator that tables do have a place in layout? Well, that's just my thought for the day. Discuss it elsewhere. Not here. :)

[RagingPenguin]

I got on my sons pc a while so I'll try and catch up now, while I have the chance...


Camoman,

You got a decent site there. I am torn on this issue of stock versus non-stock styles now. I used to praise those who kept it simple, but I think there's a difference between keeping it simple and not changing it at all. Yours really needs a more 'outdoorsy' color scheme, even if the templates never change. A good css tweaking can really make a world of difference. I'd suggest using more earthy tones. Perhaps browns, tans, and few differing shades of green. Your forum 'title' of "Canada's Outdoor Connection - Dedicated to ATV's, Snowmobiles, Boating, Hunting, Camping, Fishing, GPS Trail Mapping, and the Great Canadian Outdoors. Check out our Forums and join us on a "TrackShare Ride" today!" is just too long and it throws the display off in a few areas. Those are the major detractions and both are easliy fixable. I've included an image in this post. I just took a screen shot and did some colorizing in PSP to show you what I mean, as an example. You hve lot's of great content and it looks like your users are happy and participating, so you know you have a great topic. Just fix the two things I mentioned and your site will be even better.

[RagingPenguin]

Aaron,

I feel I can say, now that I am no longer in consideration for botm, that your site is really the bomb. Some areas I couldn't see into because I was a guest, but I can sort of project what they'd look like based on the rest. One thing I might do is to change the css just a bit. THe frameset border is white and it really sticks out. Try adding this to the 'custom' box at the bottom of the css editor.

framset { border: 1px solid #aaaaaa; }

That is still a good color, but more subdued. Being a tad darker, it also doesn't make that border seem as wide. Play with the color a tad if you wish. I am not sure the arcade really belongs there since most of the games don't have anything to do with SM or any other hero. I always try to do things other people don't, and the arcade hack is quite common. Your site though, is very UN-common, both in quality content and presentation. I usually only stick to judging the default style of a site, and rarely change even when I join, but I must say too that I really like the Reeves tribute skin. That's just really nice. I guess the main thing here is to try and refine your focus just a tad, and get rid of anything that might detract from that. There are other sites, dedicated to games, one can go to.

[RagingPenguin]

Deviant,

Rarely do i come across a site that I just don't like, but this one comes close. I feel bad in saying that because I try real hard not to be too critical and remain mindful of one's efforts. The first thing that threw me was that splash page. I sat there watching the flash words appear, not realizing there was a 'skip intro' link to the borrom right. You either need to make that more immediately visible, or scrap that page. If I had seen this while randomly surfing, I would've left immediately. Nobody wants to wait on workds to appear, or scroll into view, especially those on dialup who may have to wait for the page in the first place. Your style itself, is not bad at all. Nuetral colors work great most of the time. I am not sure I liked all the scrolling info blocks though. Try to stay away from things that depend on javascript. No telling who has it disabled. Your block titles need to be in a bigger font, or darker. They just don't stand out as delimiters. I found the little blurb in the top center block about your site topic a bit uninformative as well. Telling a user that the answer to what your site is about is within the articles present is a major booboo. Maybe the only people who go there will already know? I have no clue. Again, if I had read that while randomly surfing my first reaction would have been to assume you just didn't feel like putting the effort forth in properly explaining your topic. Somet topics are just obvious, some, like yours, aren't. I am not sure I liked your cellspacing setting either. Not having a visible border of any sort made your forumhome look a bit disorganised, having several mixtures of layout present within the same section just looked odd. Namely, the listing of subforums. Why does your 'Forum Closed' icon not match the others in size or color? I'd stay away from the red fonts in your dropdown since red typically indicates an error state, unless it truly fits the style. In your case, I don't believe it does. Overall the site is nice. Really, it is, but I had a hard time figuring out, even after looking at it for a while, what it was really about.

I hope this was taken in the spirit intended. That being honest constructive criticism from an 'outsider' to your topic. I wish you the best of luck.

[Blue Moose Aaron]

Aaron,

I feel I can say, now that I am no longer in consideration for botm, that your site is really the bomb. Some areas I couldn't see into because I was a guest, but I can sort of project what they'd look like based on the rest. One thing I might do is to change the css just a bit. THe frameset border is white and it really sticks out. Try adding this to the 'custom' box at the bottom of the css editor.

framset { border: 1px solid #aaaaaa; }

That is still a good color, but more subdued. Being a tad darker, it also doesn't make that border seem as wide. Play with the color a tad if you wish. I am not sure the arcade really belongs there since most of the games don't have anything to do with SM or any other hero. I always try to do things other people don't, and the arcade hack is quite common. Your site though, is very UN-common, both in quality content and presentation. I usually only stick to judging the default style of a site, and rarely change even when I join, but I must say too that I really like the Reeves tribute skin. That's just really nice. I guess the main thing here is to try and refine your focus just a tad, and get rid of anything that might detract from that. There are other sites, dedicated to games, one can go to.
Thanks, that is sound advice and I will take it all into consideration. I appreciate it.

[Lizard King]

How about
Default Style : http://forum.ayyas.com/index.php?styleid=48
Leaf : http://forum.ayyas.com/index.php?styleid=37
Funeral : http://forum.ayyas.com/index.php?styleid=30

The language is Turkish :)

[RagingPenguin]

Thanks for warning me about the lang. Hehe. I don't speak or read Turkish so unless you explain it here, I have zero clue as to what the site is about. Therefore I'll stick to the styles.

All styles listed above were very nice. They were crisp, clean, and not too heavy on images. The icons and buttons were all nicely redone to your styles themes. The first theme listed did have a small consideration though. Your default link color for that one is darker than the normal font color. I found that odd. It may be just me though, but I'd switch the two colors. Links should stand out. The red hover color was fine. In the second skin, this was better, but in this case, they were the same color. I still think the links should stand our more than that. In one or two places, such as theads, I found the font size rather small at high reslutions but I know it's hard to find a good balance at times. Overall, I'd say you did a great job on these. They even scaled well to smaller resolutions.

[RagingPenguin]

Aaron, play with your css for the frameset, wysiwyg, input, button and select and see how close you can get to the attached image. In retrospect, it occurred to me that with all the darkness your theme offers, the white backgrounds here just hit you like a ton of bricks.

[Blue Moose Aaron]

I could change it to a gray or soothing light blue, but I'm not too keen on the gold inputs

[RagingPenguin]

Gray would work too. Something to lessen the stark white. :)

[Blue Moose Aaron]

Excellent suggestion, I'll get to it tonight

[Lizard King]

Thanks for warning me about the lang. Hehe. I don't speak or read Turkish so unless you explain it here, I have zero clue as to what the site is about. Therefore I'll stick to the styles.
The site name Ayyas means Drunkard in English . Most of the members love drinking just for joy and spending good time. We have different categories in out forum. The main thing we want is keep good relationship between members. Most of the members are really close friends. We believe talking and sharing everything you think is the most important thing in a community thats why we don't have lots or rules. Also our site slogan is Keep Talking which we were inspired from my favorite band Pink Floyd :)
We have categories to talk about philosophy , music ( mostly metal , rock , jazz and blues ) , members own writings ( poems etc... ) , games , cinema and frp. We have some other categories but they are not so important as these categories.
We have vbadvanced CMPS as our home page and have Geek Articles ( we use for music biografies ) , Ucash , vbArcade , vba Gallery and some other mods installed.


All styles listed above were very nice. They were crisp, clean, and not too heavy on images. The icons and buttons were all nicely redone to your styles themes. The first theme listed did have a small consideration though. Your default link color for that one is darker than the normal font color. I found that odd. It may be just me though, but I'd switch the two colors. Links should stand out. The red hover color was fine. In the second skin, this was better, but in this case, they were the same color. I still think the links should stand our more than that. In one or two places, such as theads, I found the font size rather small at high reslutions but I know it's hard to find a good balance at times. Overall, I'd say you did a great job on these. They even scaled well to smaller resolutions.

Thanks for your comments about styles. I can never say i am really good in html or design but we are trying our best to keep our styles unique for our site and we are trying to make all styles by ourself. Yep sometimes I can get some ideas when I browse other websites but I never want to copy everything from the sites. For example we have a style Ice Cold (http://forum.ayyas.com/?styleid=39) which i was inspired from vbulletin.org :p For the links advise i'll strongly consider that.

[RagingPenguin]

That's something I've never understood. That is, the level at which 'inspiration' and 'influence' becomes 'copying'. Let's face it, we all view at least twenty new sites a day, if you're a regular surfer/searcher. It's unrealistic to say we, as stylists, will never come close to looking like another site, in any degree. We are influence by every site we see, regardless of how long we looked at it, or how much we liked it. It's like genetics, hopefully minute elements of a great many sites will come together in our minds to create something new. But like genetics, sometimes it's close to something else too, that doesn't mean somebody was directly copying another.

This was just food for thought regarding Liz's comment above. Read it, remember it, but don't discuss it here. Wrong thread.