My site

Thor

Okay, This is a tech site i made awhile back, Now while feedback on the site is of course appreciated, I'm really looking for feedback on the forum.

Link to the site http://geektech.ie/

Check it out and let me know what you think, Perhaps some suggestions.

The forum was just done a few days ago and I didn't put alot of effort into it, In fact not much at all.

Thanks in advance

Cianos

Before I even clicked the link in your OP I thought "I bet he has way too many fora"...and you do The number of subfora should grow according to user demand. There's no point in having a dozen of them, with no posts.

Keeping the discussion concentrated means the activity you do gain makes a big difference. It'd be much better to have 10 posts in one forum than 10 forums with one post each.

Think about it this way...creating a new forum is a way to organise and categorise the content. What you have there is a big filing cabinet with no files to put in it. It's only when the stack of files gets too big that you need a bigger filing cabinet

So if I were you I'd cut it down to 1 or 2 and make them quite focused. Like "Need to ask a geek?" or something like that...make it useful and problem-solving. Think about creating a bunch of seed threads under some different user names just to get some activity going, replying to your own posts etc.

Thor

Cianos wrote: »

Before I even clicked the link in your OP I thought "I bet he has way too many fora"...and you do The number of subfora should grow according to user demand. There's no point in having a dozen of them, with no posts.

Keeping the discussion concentrated means the activity you do gain makes a big difference. It'd be much better to have 10 posts in one forum than 10 forums with one post each.

Think about it this way...creating a new forum is a way to organise and categorise the content. What you have there is a big filing cabinet with no files to put in it. It's only when the stack of files gets too big that you need a bigger filing cabinet

So if I were you I'd cut it down to 1 or 2 and make them quite focused. Like "Need to ask a geek?" or something like that...make it useful and problem-solving. Think about creating a bunch of seed threads under some different user names just to get some activity going, replying to your own posts etc.

First off, Thanks for the feedback, it's greatly appreciated.

The current forum categories were simply there for a possible future template, I as pretty much going to remove most of them at the beginning.

At this point, I just wanted to see how it would look with 15+ forums and just see if it looked to crowed.

I do like your analogy of 10 posts in one forum instead of 1 post in 10 forums each.

Perhaps removing all sub sections in Computer Tech and just have, General issues or something like that, Any suggestions for a better breakdown of the forum for the beginning.

Cianos

Have a think about what type of people you'll be attracting to the site, what problems they may have, and how/if you can help them solve those problems.

Solving problems instantly gives value to what you do.

Other forums become social platforms of a sort because of the number of users and the amount of interaction. But a new forum can't expect to have that for a long time, so there has to be a more tangible value.

Thor

Cianos wrote: »

Have a think about what type of people you'll be attracting to the site, what problems they may have, and how/if you can help them solve those problems.

Solving problems instantly gives value to what you do.

Other forums become social platforms of a sort because of the number of users and the amount of interaction. But a new forum can't expect to have that for a long time, so there has to be a more tangible value.

Going to think it over and see what is the best idea for some forums and so that later on it will be easier to expand each category, Thanks for the feedback.

trigger26

Hi Thor,

just my 2cents, there's a lot happening on the page, maybe a bit too much

trig

Fokebox

Very informative with nice structure. I like the design and content of the website. There is only one possible improvement for me - main menu on the top. It disappears with gray color on the gray backround. May it is better to make blue colored?!

Thor

trigger26 wrote: »

Hi Thor,

just my 2cents, there's a lot happening on the page, maybe a bit too much

trig

While i agree, There isn't actually much i can remove, Everything on the page has its own place and it's the only way i can keep everything with a close enough design.

Fokebox wrote: »

Very informative with nice structure. I like the design and content of the website. There is only one possible improvement for me - main menu on the top. It disappears with gray color on the gray backround. May it is better to make blue colored?!

Thanks a million, I really appreciate it.

Now, The main menu, Are you talking about the categories list, As in Home, Computer, Gaming, Smartphones and Tablets, Reviews, Forum.

Let me know if that is the part.

Thor

Okay, Redid the site.

Anyone willing to check it out and let me know what they think. I would really appreciate it.

Cheers

http://www.geektech.ie/

Giblet

It's not too bad, your logo is a bit garish though!
It suffers from the one problem I find with a lot of these tech news aggregate sites. Too much advertising and space taken up by stuff I won't read and hate reading. The whole right column is noise which distorts the view of the entire page. Think of something like redmondpie and their ilk which just seems to be a place to get hits on a topic and advertise. It would look so much better if you could us all the space for the articles, and remove the entire right column.

The ad at the top beside your logo is awful and it sets the tone for the rest of the page. I would nearly be inclined to close the window as I feel as though it's just a means to get advertising, and not provide relevant content. You need a better content to ad + facebook&twitter block ratio and they have to not be obtrusive.

Hrmm I also see you include jQuery twice on the page. This isn't the first time I've seen this, must be some bad Wordpress template thing.

biko

Grammar and spelling errors are hard to spot but important to avoid as they'll drag the impression down.

Here and Geektech Headquarters we thrive to get tech news out to all those interested and it’s our goal to give great reviews for all your tech gadget needs.

Also have good alt text for all images. Some are empty and some just numbers.
http://webdesign.about.com/od/beginningtutorials/a/aa122004.htm

JumpJump1

Your typography needs some work. You're using a mish-mash of typefaces that don't work very well together (Arvo, Georgia, Trebuchet MS, Droid Sans and Droid serif, as far as I can see). Consider making better use of the slab-serif Arvo, perhaps for headings. Your use of Droid serif with Georgia for the headings and paragraphs are too similar to one another. If you're going in that direction, simply use Droid serif, or Georgia - not both. Otherwise, choose something that gives a nice contrast, perhaps a sans-serif for the headlines or the slab-serif, Arvo, as I mentioned before.

Your line height on the paragraphs seems a bit generous to me, I'd tighten it a bit.

Decide on two type families, it's more than enough, and stick with them. Vary your links, headings and body text with capitalisation, colour, etc. I'd also work more on the use of colour - it seems fairly random at the moment. Tone it down and decide on one strong accent colour. Use this throughout.

JumpJump1

Here's an example of a site that uses just one typeface: http://www.subtraction.com/

Colour is used sparingly, but very effectively (just one accent colour - orange), and the text is varied with great use of bold and varying tones of black & grey. Rhythm, balance and effective use of a grid make a beautiful, simple, striking website.

Thor

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Going to work on each one and see what I do and what comes from it.

There are some things I'm currently working on, but as you all know with wordpress you are fairly limited based on the template used.

I don't know much php and can only modify parts here and there.

I really do appreciate the comments and the time you took to check out the site.