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What do you think of my website?

B

Benchtech

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 6, 2012
47
3
I have been creating a forum for a while now, I was wondering what you guys think of the site overall? Also do you have any suggestions? I want to make this site big but need to attract members.

You can find it at: www.benchtech.co.uk
 
Just some quick first thoughts:

-Nice theme. It makes it harder to immediately discern that you're using SMF.

-Can't immediately tell what the purpose of your forum is. I see references to "reviews" and such when I first land on the page, but reviews of what? You need some sort of tagline or other way to make it clear what your forum is about and who the intended audience is.

-Problem #1: Using SMF. It's not very robust and has a very "ancient" feel to it. Although nowhere near as horrendous as phpBB, it's not as good as say, MyBB in my personal opinion. Obviously if you wanted to go big you'd use IP.Board or XenForo (which is quite refreshing, actually). Normally I'd recommend vBulletin but IB has run it to crap in the past few years.

-The general category at the top (Intros, reviews, etc.) should be further down the homepage, with more content-relevant categories before the fold of the page (i.e. seen before having to scroll down).

-You have way too many categories and forums for a brand new forum; it prolongs the appearance of emptiness, and you should start small and really only expand as you need to.


I know this is probably a shameless plug but if you want some more advice from other forum admins, check out the admin community I just sold a few weeks ago, www.adminaddict.net.
 
NickPod said:
Just some quick first thoughts:

-Nice theme. It makes it harder to immediately discern that you're using SMF.

-Can't immediately tell what the purpose of your forum is. I see references to "reviews" and such when I first land on the page, but reviews of what? You need some sort of tagline or other way to make it clear what your forum is about and who the intended audience is.

-Problem #1: Using SMF. It's not very robust and has a very "ancient" feel to it. Although nowhere near as horrendous as phpBB, it's not as good as say, MyBB in my personal opinion. Obviously if you wanted to go big you'd use IP.Board or XenForo (which is quite refreshing, actually). Normally I'd recommend vBulletin but IB has run it to crap in the past few years.

-The general category at the top (Intros, reviews, etc.) should be further down the homepage, with more content-relevant categories before the fold of the page (i.e. seen before having to scroll down).

-You have way too many categories and forums for a brand new forum; it prolongs the appearance of emptiness, and you should start small and really only expand as you need to.


I know this is probably a shameless plug but if you want some more advice from other forum admins, check out the admin community I just sold a few weeks ago, www.adminaddict.net.
Click to expand...

Thanks alot for the advice, I will make some changes to my forum. I will consider moving forum software but I am concerned at downtime especially as I've just started getting some members and I fear I will loose them, my only option would be MyBB I am only 16 so don't really have the money to buy vBullitin or IPBoard. I have just managed to secure 20,000 links from a very popular animal website which should do good in helping me on Google etc. I will also register for that forum and don't worry, any plug is a good plug and I like helping people out and I might get some help also. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Ben
 
NickPod said:
-Problem #1: Using SMF. It's not very robust and has a very "ancient" feel to it. Although nowhere near as horrendous as phpBB, it's not as good as say, MyBB in my personal opinion. Obviously if you wanted to go big you'd use IP.Board or XenForo (which is quite refreshing, actually). Normally I'd recommend vBulletin but IB has run it to crap in the past few years.
Click to expand...

XenForo is amazing in my opinion. And not too expensive. I know one forum that is getting ready right now to move to XenForo from vBulletin 4.x.
 
Comeagain? said:
XenForo is amazing in my opinion. And not too expensive. I know one forum that is getting ready right now to move to XenForo from vBulletin 4.x.
Click to expand...

XenForo is amazing. Kier and Mike have done a magnificent job. I would've switched one of my forums had I not sold it; and I'm still considering converting another of mine.
 
Graphically, I can't hardly read the Help/Search/Login/Register buttons. As a general rule, you should not have to hover over a button just to find it. Some sites play up the "easter egg / scavenger hunt" theme, but it doesn't make sense on a forum, and not for those core tasks. I'd look at the font color or background choice there.

Also a bit confused by the redundancy of the Twitter/Facebook at both top and bottom of the page. Because they look different, it's not clear they point to the same place, necessarily. The links up top look nice. Is there really any drawback to removing the ones at the bottom?
 
Nothing nice about the site its just a stock forum layout.
Running SMF.
To the OP your forum won't be running very long you have too many categories, and SMF is notorious with getting hit with spammers.
 
waloshin said:
Nothing nice about the site its just a stock forum layout.
Running SMF.
To the OP your forum won't be running very long you have too many categories, and SMF is notorious with getting hit with spammers.
Click to expand...

It's not a 'stock' forum layout at all, considering it doesn't come as 'stock'. I'm willing to be it will be running for long.
 
Benchtech said:
Hello everyone.

I have just created a new site; could you tell me what you think about it? The link is http://shten.me/ and it is a link shortening service. I am going to make the api available soon so people can use it on third party sites.

Also if you wouldn't mind could you tell me what you think about my forum? I have asked before but have changed it significantly - the url is http://www.benchtech.co.uk.
Click to expand...

Am I the only one that reads shten.me as sh_t on me?
 
The theme was not applied to the public, that's annoying, sorted now.
 
Last edited:
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