Hi there!

This is my first board and I was wondering if someone could look it over and let me know if I should add anything or get rid of some things..Thanks!



WForum Name: My Parent Connection
Url:www.myparentconnection.com
Launch date: 3/20/06
Members: 32
Software: VB

Hi there, first off i absolutly love the skin - is it a custom made one? The header is fab

You have made a mistake that many admins do when first planning a community - you have forum overload.

Communities grow and grow and the forums tend to grow with it. At the moment, although it is very well laid out, alot of the forums do not need their own space and could be merged to tighten things up, once 'tightened' up you'll have less forums meaning more activity showing in the ones that are left, better navigation for your members and less to keep scrolling past.

Suggestions on cutting back:

1. forum announcements, comments, board issues and test board could all be merged into one forum - eg - Community Center - (add whats in here to the description)

2. Lets get to know you and introduction forums could also be merged

3. The our kids catagory could be placed into one forum and sub forums used for the toddlers, babies etc

4.^^^ same again for the TTC Pregnancy & parenting days - merged and subforumed - i would then have one catagory with the remaining forums and sub forums- this will boost the appearance of activity, make it easier to navigate and can easily be put back when the community grows and you 'need' to expand - at the moment the big layout and little activity will deter guests.

There's a lovely atmosphere around the place, it seems very friendly and welcoming. I can see the time and effort the team is putting into the community and this is always a positive as it shows potential members that you are serious, making them secure when registering that the community wont die a sorry death after a month or so -

You need to work on building the content up though - here's a thread i made about this
http://www.best-board.com/showthread.php?t=3439 which i think you'll find useful.

I fantastic start - well done

__________________

Wow!! Thank you so much for your reply! I was afraid I would get something bad said about it because I am such a newbie LOL

I got the skin from VB.org, its called Girltalk I thought I would have a forum overload, I started planning this site over a year ago and just kept going LOL I really like your ideas and will definitely work on them!

I have tons of content that I am ready to place on the site, I am just having a lot of trouble doing it. I have about 100 articles ready to go, but am finding it difficult to make the pages and sections because I don't know html, php or anything like that. I wish it were easy so that I could just copy and paste LOL


THanks again for your review!

You're welcome.

Have you see the vB article hacks, GARRS is the one we use - it means we can just copy and paste

__________________

Really??? Oh, I don't know how I missed that one! That is what I need...YAY!!! Thank you so much for letting me know about it! I am off to check it out..

Oh, is it easy for a noob to install?

__________________

Hey, I just installed it! I never thought I'd be able too! Now I am off to configure it, thanks again for telling me about this!

__________________

You're welcome

__________________

I kinda like that skin, not fond of it as I am not find of light colors

Your forum is VERY active when seeing that there are 33 members so far Nice thinking of opening a forum with a theme liek this

Thanks! It took me weeks to find a skin that was not too bright or too dark, or just too plain. I get headaches very easy and this, believe it or not, was the only skin that hasn't given me a headache LOL

I am actually surprised by the number of members too, but I definitely won't be complaining I am loving every bit of it.

__________________

Alright, I finally fixed the site and I do have to say, I like it much better now!
I also added more things to the main page and added the articles like you suggested. Thanks alot shellspeare for all of your advice, I really appreciate it!!

__________________