Hey,
Site Name: Movie Gurus Forum
Forum Software: IPB
Subject: Movies
Lauch Date: Will says some time around Feb 9, 2006
URL: http://movie-gurus.com/forum/

I think i am finally ready to have my forum critqued. Would love to get any sort of feedback on it since it is my first IPB skin.

Thanks
David

__________________

My DVD Collection

Did you make the skin? Doesn't look too bad for a first. I do have to ask though, what is the banner all about? How have you taken movies to symbolize Asians?

You could use a favicon though...The default, blue IPB favicon just isn't doing it for me...

Your advertising...seems WAY off. Your prices are a bit high for the traffic that I would imagine you receive. Also, you say on your advertising page "We reach from 15-25k unique visitors" ...I find that very hard to believe - perhaps you are looking at the wrong statistic? There's no way you receive even 10,000 unique visitors per month...unless the site has been around for a while and the forums are brand new.

Speaking of which, I went to your home page and couldnt find a link back to your forums...at least not very easily.

The light grays in your forum should probably change...either that or lighten the other colors and darken the text - right now the colors just dont go together very well. Other than that, I like where you're going with the skin...with some color adjustments, it could look real nice...and an explanation on your reasoning behind that header might be good also

__________________
...some super-sweet signature

Yes I did make it. the site is called movie gurus...and Asians really have nothing to do with it and the story for how we got the name well is very old and long.

as for the main site...the main site is going to get the same skin soon (my coder has been busy with having a kid and work) and i am going to add the forum to the main page later today maybe tomorrow. So it will match perfectly. actually you can even see the new skin for the main site at moviegur.us

__________________

My DVD Collection

Ah, ok - yeah, that new skin looks good, great job on that

Also, moviegur.us - how creative! I love it

__________________
...some super-sweet signature

Thanks anyone else?

__________________

My DVD Collection

Ryan, you do get it right? .... gurus are usually old asian karate masters.. lol.

__________________
I went to Vegas, and all I got was this Blister. - true story!

SKIN:
I do like the colors, although the grey fonts in the forum descriptions are very faint in color, at least for me and are hard to read. Also the links in your header logo are also very hard to read.


FORUMS:
You have the right amount of forums not to little not to much and they are broken down nicely.

Maybe even create a couple of weekly threads of movies coming out on dvd and in the theaters.

I would also make a welcome header message to let user know why they should join your forum.

MEMBERS:
Obviously being a new forum site you have a couple of members and for the amount of post. Just make sure you post something daily, that way it gives user something to read and then join.

Hopefully with your statistics that you mention in another post, that more user will join.


Changes I would recommend:
Create welcome header.
Change colors of font in descriptions and header.
Post daily so users have something to read.


OVERALL:
You have great site and once you get some more members and post your site could take-off. Good Job!

__________________
My Blog - Follow Me on Twitter

Like Ryan l was completely confused by the banner, it would appear to be a site about Asian cinema judging from the name and that banner dude. You really do need to change that.

Uhmm going to be harsh here okay. That skin is completely dreadful! The colours clash, the orange roll overs simply had me shaking my head, and you may want to look at the new review module setup. Where you go to select via title etc is cluttered and a complete mess. Sorry it looks like a skin designed by a coder to me.

You have a heck of a lot of competition out there. Have a look at joblo, arrowinthehead, or bloody-disgusting.com to see how much better those sites look. Haven't visited in a while but coldbeermovies (or some such name) is another movie site running on Invision software, they were looking pretty sweet last time l was there.

I would put a lot more work into the skin, it really is a shocker, and do something about the banner. Currently there's no wow factor involved. You need something to grab people's attention.

What content, besides the reviews and forums are you planning? Presume the usual; movie articles, upcoming movie news, quiz, competitions etc. Might be worth while adding the latest box office figures to the portal/front page as well.

Sorry for being harsh, but l did get a popup while visiting your site which always makes me a) not happy b) highly unlikely to revisit the site.

Thanks for all the feedback I want to say that I have decided to re-do it...in the end I did not like the banner to much and to be honest I don’t like the idea of it being dark. Again thanks and I will let you know when the new template is up

__________________

My DVD Collection