www.ratemypub.ie

randombar

Hi,
I have checked this on the webmasters forum I was just looking for some opinions from the food and drink side of things? Would you find this site useable? Is it missing something?
Thanks for your time
Gary

r3nu4l

Hi Gary,

The site is a great idea and reminds me of some I use for pubs in Cambridge
However, the question is "Would I use this site?"

Right now the answer is...Maybe!

Why?
I don't like the font you are using for body text, it annoys my eyes, use something cleaner like verdana or anything 'clean' and developed for on-screen reading.

I love the banner header across the top, I like the scroling comments ont he right hand side of the page...although this should be randomised as right now every comment is for Nancy Spains in Cork...it doesn't seem 'National' enough.

I don't like the position of the pub pictures part of the website and right now as I look at it part of the text from a reccommended pub is impacting on the pictures section...see attached.

I don't like the Cartoon map of Ireland, it seems...unprofessional...kiddie, like a bebo map or something Treat your users like discerning punters...not just mad yokes going out on the lash

I firmly believe that the view and appearance of a website are important to keep users coming back...if the homepage is too cluttered, they won't return, too sparse and they think nothing is happening.

All in all it's not too bad and only needs some tweaking.
I would move the pub pictures box to a new page or re-size it or move it to the right hand side, under the pub comments section.

I would really change the font but others may not agree with me.



That's the design bit out of the way...


I love the comments section and the pint glass icons
I love the map feature!
I don't like the fact that I seem to have to register to comment on a pub...I'm lazy, I don't want yet another login to remember
How do I register for the site? It's not clear. If I click the login button I only see a login option I don't get a 'register here' link here and can't see one anywhere!
I really like the photos bit, that's good!

So I might use it but not if I have to register to comment. Handy site but needs to look better to encourage me to come back.

Zaph

Hi Gary, got to agree with r3nu4l, it's a very nice site but it needs a lillte tweaking, it's trying too hard to be all things to everyone on the front page. Do you really need the side bars? Removing them would give you more space to work with and give a less cluttered feel to the page. The font and map should definitely be changed to something a bit more "adult" looking, and I'd agree that I can't see the point of having to register and login to leave comments. For the type of site it is I think having to register would more likely put people off bothering to leave a comment. I'd also have a look at your rating system. If I click on Dublin on the map I get a list of Dublin's top 5 pubs. I clicked on one on the list that I'd never heard of (Kleenlines) and saw a rating of only 2.5, with quite a lot of negative comments, while there were other pubs on the list below with higher ratings. That list could do with being properly sorted alphabetically if at all possible (e.g. Harry Byrnes is the last pub under H, while Hynes is near the top of the list). The map also shows KleenLines as being in the same location as Peter's Pub, a pub I know very well, although that's not shown in its right place on the map.

On the plus side I think the translation links are a great idea for visitors, although you might want to have a look at the Chinese one, everything's coming up question marks on mine. If it's a case of needing to install a language pack you might need a prompt there. I hope I haven't come across as being too critical, because that wasn't the intention. As I've said, you have the makings of a good site there but I believe that a few relatively minor changes would turn it into a site that people would be inclined to use more regularly. Best of luck with it.

r3nu4l

Okay I had another look at the site this morning and it turns out you don't have to register to leave comments. I didn't see the link last night that allows you to rate the pub!

I would therefore suggest that you put the "Rate [pub name]" link into a box and make the box a link, perhaps a green box with white text?

Overall a good site with great potential! Leave some room on the pages for some banner ads for different pubs

Another little problem you need to be aware of (at least in FireFox):
The pub location map needs to fall behind search results (see attached)

randombar

Thanks very much for your very helpful comments lads, ye're definitely right about most of it, thinking of getting rid of the map all right, very hard to decide what to put on the home page though?

As for the ratings it is interesting that ye thought ye had to register, I'll definitely work on that!

Thinking of changing the county page too as it just seems like too much text!

The thing about calculating the best rated pub is it's a very hard one to calculate, obviously you don't want to give a pub with an average of five with only two ratings a higher ranking than a pub with an average of four from 10 ratings, so I'm trying to incorporate the number of ratings by the average rating (still having problems!)

There have also been comments about the fact the price of a pint isnt in there but then that's another one that changes from county to county, i.e. a cheap pub in dublin would be an expensive pub in cork?

Thanks again for your comments and if you do have any more suggestions I'd love to hear them!

Zaph

I'd leave the map on the front page, I think it's a good feature, but I think it should be a little less cartoon-like. Have a look at the map on irishfuelprices.com to see what I mean.

Slunk

Just looked up one of the pubs nearby to me and says its got a late bar and Gay friendly. Id make sure the information your supplying is correct as these two pieces of information are not.

r3nu4l

Slunk wrote: »

Just looked up one of the pubs nearby to me and says its got a late bar and Gay friendly. Id make sure the information your supplying is correct as these two pieces of information are not.

This is something that a user like yourself could correct by adding that information in your comment box. Once sites like this reach a critical mass, the real users tend to outweigh the spammy/trolling users. Take boards.ie for example. I might go to the motors forum and claim that the Nissan Micra can do 0-100 kph in 3 seconds. If there are hardly any users on boards.ie then someone might believe me but with more users comes the 'critical mass' that would ensure my comment was pounded into the dust.

Did you make a comment to say it's not gay friendly and doesn't have a late bar?

subway

none of these puns at these links work:
http://www.ratemypub.ie/findres.php?publoc=HOWTH
http://www.ratemypub.ie/findres.php?pubname=elphin

randombar

r3nu4l wrote: »

This is something that a user like yourself could correct by adding that information in your comment box. Once sites like this reach a critical mass, the real users tend to outweigh the spammy/trolling users. Take boards.ie for example. I might go to the motors forum and claim that the Nissan Micra can do 0-100 kph in 3 seconds. If there are hardly any users on boards.ie then someone might believe me but with more users comes the 'critical mass' that would ensure my comment was pounded into the dust.

Did you make a comment to say it's not gay friendly and doesn't have a late bar?

That's basically it, we started off last year with 700 to 800 pubs and it was very easy to maintain, everyday we're getting emails (which we appreciate) telling us if a certain pub has closed or whether or not the details are correct.

It's hard to decide how much responsibility to give to the general user, whether or not to allow them to have access to "close" pubs etc etc (At the moment we are limiting in the access)

subway wrote: »

none of these puns at these links work:
http://www.ratemypub.ie/findres.php?publoc=HOWTH
http://www.ratemypub.ie/findres.php?pubname=elphin

Apologies there might have been something up with the server, they seem to be working now?

Nevyn

a search by postal code would be another good thing.

subway

they are indeed

agree with a lot of the comments on fonts etc,
maybe get a mate doing a graphic desing course to help out.
the pages i linked to look good, but not great.
the front page is a very messy

another suggestion would be to make the entire banner a link to the home page, the word home doesnt immedfiatley stand out

stick with one font

randombar

Thaedydal wrote: »

a search by postal code would be another good thing.

Ya it should really pick up the dublin post code numbers if they're inputed.

subway wrote: »

they are indeed

agree with a lot of the comments on fonts etc,
maybe get a mate doing a graphic desing course to help out.
the pages i linked to look good, but not great.
the front page is a very messy

another suggestion would be to make the entire banner a link to the home page, the word home doesnt immedfiatley stand out

stick with one font

Ya the font definitely has to change, I think that's a must! Reckon I'll be doing a good revamp soon enough, working on proper links at the moment, like

http://www.ratemypub.ie/dublin/

and so on.

I'm starting to think the column down the left or right hand side might work, the county page too is just very dull, a long list of pubs is just boring!

Thanks again lads and if ye have any more comments i'd love to hear them!

Tails142

I would get rid of the gay friendly thing if I was you - seems a bit pointless. It's hardly the case that gay people get run out of normal pubs. And gay bars can put that in their description if that's what they want - and pubs that dont want any gays could also make that clear in their decriptions

randombar

Yup that was another problem we had, we had gay bar as a type and unfortunately this was abused, every small town local bar that was added in ireland was classed as a gay bar type, so we basically have to have it in the comments instead!

_blank_

Put the pubs in Alphabetical Order.

I looked under "H" and found Harry Byrne's right at the bottom of the list.

ciaran76

I couldn't find The Paddocks pub in Littlepace thats in Dublin 15.

randombar

DesF wrote: »

Put the pubs in Alphabetical Order.

I looked under "H" and found Harry Byrne's right at the bottom of the list.

Ya i fixed that, thanks for spotting it!

ciaran76 wrote: »

I couldn't find The Paddocks pub in Littlepace thats in Dublin 15.

If a user can't find a pub he can enter it himself.

randombar

Thought ye might like to have a look at this and let me know if you think you'd use it?

http://www.ratemypub.ie/dublin/addcrawl/

Nutty

http://www.ratemypub.ie/Limerick/Scholars-Bar-and-Restaurant/ - closed for the last 3 years

Javas Coffee Bar has opened in its place

lot of Limerick and Wexford Venues missing

randombar

Hi Nutty,
Thanks for letting me know, generally I find out if a pub is closed from the public, the add a comment saying a certain pub is closed.
I have now added in the coffee bar:

http://www.ratemypub.ie/Limerick/Java's-Coffee-Bar/

Unfortunately I dont have the resources to find out which pubs are missing and I have to depend on the public to add the pubs I don't have!

Nutty

vinters association might be able to help ya out...

randombar

Tried them, they're like the stone masons though, very secretive!

BeerNut

And they run a competing site for Dublin.