We just opened all of a few months ago, so if you have any suggestions for this board, I'd like them all to be thrown at me now; So I don't have to change to much when we get more members.

http://hdfilms.excell.org/index.php
(I'm working on the banner, that's what the colors were going to be but then I couldn't get them to work on the whole page so, I went with something else. Of course I made the banner before I actually put the colors on the page.)

Thanks, Andrew

I don't mean to bump, as I know it's against the rules for this forum but I'm just curious as to why I'm the only that doesn't have any replies yet.

All right, I will offer up some personal opinions here:

1. Your forum is HUGE! I got lost just looking on the main page. I think you may have waaay too many categories on there. It will be very hard to get those categories filled with quality posts, and that will prove to be a problem for you. The reason it will be a problem, is it will look like the site is not very active. Even if it is very active, with so many empty forums, the casual surfer will be instantly turned off, especially if what they are looking for is one of the empty ones. Also, with so many different categories, it can get very confusing, and be very intimidating to the new folks. I suggest combining as many as you can (and from just a quick look through, I don't think it would be too hard) just keep the forums more general, then when you start to pick up, you can break out into the specific areas.

2. I am not a very big fan of the cholor scheme. Now, I am by no means a color matching or design person, but to me, your site is just too blue. Dark and monotone doesn't feel very professional to me.Try throwing in some lighter colors or some white here or there, and that might liven it up a bit

3. I notice you have 2 "Whats going on" sections. I don't believe that is needed. Leave the one at the bottom and take the one off the top. I felt I had to go a long way before I even got into the forum, and that is bothersome. I would also suggest removing the usergroup labels for the time being, seeing how you don't have a whole lot of members. The colors are fine, though I personaly would make all the staff one color for the time being.

4. In my opinion, the recent 5 threads section needs to go. I never pay attention to them myself, and it is redundant to me since I use the new post featre anyway. Also goes back to taking longer to get to the actual forum.

Ok, enough negative, I will talk about what I like

The overall idea the board is based on is very interesting to me. I love movies, and I have always been fascinated with film making. I think done right, your forum will do well. I think the content will be interesting, and I particularly like the Featured Film section. I will be very interested in seeing what films come from the members of the site.

Well, keep in mind these are all my personal opinions. I really like the idea behind your site, and wish you the best of luck, and look forward to seeing where it goes.

Okay, so what forums do you think can be combined?; I've had some many people tell me this but then never offer up what forums should be combined or dropped entirely.

I'm in the process of reviewing, I'll have a review up by tommorow.

Cole.

Honestly, you should condense each category into its own forum (for example, all the forums under Video Post-Production should be condensed into one forum called Video Post-Production. Every single one of your categories should be condensed like this, except for IFMAM Featured Films, Off-Topic, and chARTer~TECH High School for the Preforming Arts.

That may seem like a big cut, but for a forum as new as your's, this is needed.

__________________
Speculation Central - Thinking about the future... today!

UROCA Forums - Home of the NationStates roleplaying region UROCA

Initial Impression
There are over 70 forums and less than 60 actual posts. This is quite bad and I can personally say your forum will not get any activity with that many forums. I also noticed the logo does not match the style colors and that there is no guest welcome message, nothing telling me why I should join.

Organization and Feel
Forum Organization
To be honest, even the largest of forums shouldn't have half of that many forums. Not only does it make your forum look very empty, but it also makes your forum hard to navigate and messy looking. If you would go to offtopic.com, the largest vBulletin forum, you will see that forum does not even have as many forums as you have, despite it's popularity. I would advise you, because your forum size is so small, to condense the amount of forums you have to around five to eight at the very most. It must have taken forever to organize and put all those forums there, but unfortuantly, having a small amount of forums at the beginning is pretty much a golden rule.
Repitition/Positioning of Elements and Guest Incentives
I noticed also, that you seem to repeat elements quite a lot. One very well stated example is that the "What's Going On?" box is at the very top and at the very bottom. Personally, when I'm at a forum I don't check the whats going on box unless there is someone I'm looking for on there. That box saturates structure and leads people away from the actual content. Latest Posts and the forums themselves should be the most noticable part of your forum, as that is the main attraction.

As for guest incentives, I have absolutely no interest in registering there. I don't feel a general community welcome because there are hardly any posts and I don't get a general welcome as a guest and possibly a new registrant as there is no guest welcome message other than the default, boring, I don't care vBulletin default welcome message. A very easy plugin you can get for vBulletin that ads welcomeheaders fairly easily is Ted's Welocome Headers Hack located for download here. It will not only allow you to customize a welcome message for potential members, but will also allow you make messages for people who do not have their email confirmed, people who haven't posted in a while, and so on. In my opinion, this is one of the most important features for any forum, and I would advise you get on the train as it is very handy and does bring in several registrants.

GET RID OF ALL THE ADS: Your forum is brand new and is covered with ads. One ad in the header would do, but the amount of ads is ridiculous.

Skin and Modifications
I do not really see how this style fits in with the topic of this forum at all. I really don't understand the ugly gradient used for the table category css classs especially. It looks like you took crayon and drew apon it with gray over the blue:

The style itself could work for your purpose if you put a little work into it. Things I notice:

• The Logo does not fit with the colors.
• Some of the default vB buttons are being used; they look ugly on a dark background
• Ugly popup menu colors

Other than that, things are very legible, easy to read, which is a major plus. I don't have any problem finding anything or seeing anything.

Guidelines and Staff
I found the annoucement thread for the rules very easily, but the rules are "Coming Soon". You should have a set of rules before things even start.

As for administrators and moderators, WAAY too many, at this time, I counted 8 moderators, 2 super moderators, and 1 administrator. You should have one moderator at most and you should be the administrator. You currently have enough staff for a large, very active forum. When people see only staff posting and being active, they tend to think there is an inner circle between the staff that they cannot be a part. Reduce the staff down to 1-2 people at most for the time being.


Recommended Changes

• Reduce the number of forums to <= 7
• Add a customized welcome message for guests, ideally install the welcome headers hack, will make your job easier.
• Delete repeated elements, one of one element is enough
• Get rid of the blatent advertisements
• Revamp the Style
• Write the Rules
• Reduce the amount of staff to around 2-3.

Cheers, and good luck!

offtopic.com is the biggest vBulletin forum; maybe user wise but not forum-wise.

http://Offtopic.com - 42 forums

http://dvxuser.com - 48 forums --- Got the ads above the forums from here.

http://dvinfo.net/conf - 56 forums --- Got the double What's going on box from here.

Mines 78 exactly.

and both DVXuser.com and Dvinfo.net/conf only apply to the film making half, I have Actors and Musicians in addition to what those two have. If I got rid of the High School, Music, and acting forums I'd have 5 less then the dvinfo board.

If i had as many members as the offtopic.com board, I'd get rid of the Who's online box altogether and just make it a link. (Would take less time to load)

Yes, they have 48 forums - but they have enough content to need those 48 forums. At the moment, you do not have enough content to justify having those forums.

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I never said it was, it's the most active. It has less forums than yours, and yours has less than 100 posts, less than one member (generalization) at offtopic. You add forums as you go.