Title: Forum Changes!
Maiden - November 29, 2006 07:08 PM (GMT)
The forum has been changed and so I hope ya'll don't mind. I went to and IFSZ review and the review was fine, but she said we had way too many forums so I narrowed it down some to only like 4 catagories. ^_^
Here is what the review score was:
Here is what the review score was:
| QUOTE |
| All Ratings are out of 10... Number of Members - 5 Number of Posts - 7 Number of Active Members - 5 Originality - 7 Quality of Categories - 6 Good Adminship - 7 Good Moderators - 7 Variation of Forums - 8 Layout - 6 Appearance - 7 Overall Rating - 6 I rarely see that skin these days, but it is indeed a lovely skin and I think it fits the theme very well even without images on the maintitle and such. While the skin is of good quality, I dislike a few of the graphics - mainly the markers. I like the aspect of having an image of a character on the marker because it reflects upon the main theme well, however I'd rather see a professional base with an image blended into it, or even a small sprite blended into it. Also, rather than having such large text saying 'Old' and 'New' - it'd be easier and neater to have the opacity of the no new marker lower than the new post marker. The statistic markers seem a bit too big in my opinion, and using the same concept as I suggested above with smaller pixel text that says 'BDay' and such on them would fit better into the skin. The posting buttons are pre made specifically for the skin, so they match very well, however you should consider using the smaller buttons as well instead of just using plain text to represent the contact and editing buttons ( edit, quote, aim, card, etc ). I like the idea of the wings for pips, if they matched the skin a little better, so the background matched up perfectly and such, they'd be excellent. Though you should get some team icons for your staff team as well, so members can easily find staff while scanning a topic. I dislike the folder icons because they seem too bulky for the skin, something sleeker with a gloss would do the job, even if they were a rectangle instead of in the shape of an enevelope. Lastly; your banner - I really love the design of it and it matches the skin very well, the only thing that could be improved is the text. The smaller text is hard to read, choosing a good pixel font for next time would fix this. To be honest, I think you currently have too many forums and categories on your forum. The part where it gets more messy is the bottom, because you only have one forum dedicated to a category and they are too close together, if you added more forums you'd create distance between the category titles. Most of those forums are better suited to sub forums, or forums in a category that you have above. Making your layout more compact is a good idea because it's usually easier to navigate, and less overwhelming for newer members. Starting with your first category; all the forums you have in there are fine, however I suggest merging some. Since the first forum is dedicated to strictly rules, the chances of getting posts in it are slim to none so it makes the forums look inactive. It'd be much more organized for you to have a pinned topic for rules in your 'News' forum. That's how most forums organize their rules, and I believe it works much better. The next two forums ( Help Desk and Balamb Garden ) are good where they are and do not need to be merged, though you should work on activity in the help area, even staff can start polls about the forum there, and as for your introduction forum, a more indepth description would get rid of the emptiness in the box. Two lines or so is best for descriptions, and all should be balanced out so it's not too much, but they aren't too short either. Within your next two categories, your main theme steps in between Squall, Rinoa, Final Fantasy and Square Enix. Since you have split the topics into two seperate categories, the amount of discussion is limited and lacking greatly in both categories. To improve the look of the layout, I would suggest merging both of those categories together, but make it so that the Squall and Rinoa forum comes first, and then afterwards some Final Fantasy forums, and then a single forum for Square Enix forums, with sub forums for the other games. Afterwards you have two generalized categories that aren't really on topic with your main theme, those two could probably be merged as well, in my opinion. There are also a lot of forums that share the same idea or concept, so using sub forums to your advantage is a good idea. Aside from your forums, the forum names are a bit unoriginal except for a few, such as "Balamb", but I don't see how that has anything to do with debates. Below is a suggested layout for you, or a layout that you can reference back to if you decide to change your layout around: Communication Tower Forum Bulliten Help Desk Deling's Train >> Departures Balamb Garden Eyes on Me Final Fantasy Discussion >> FF Eight >> FF Misc. >> FF Debates Square Enix >> Kingdom Hearts >> Itadaki Street Squinoa Blog Deling City Literature >> Fan Fiction ( Written ) >> Poetry & Lyrics Graphic Garden >> Fan Fiction ( Art ) >> Requests >> Signature Shops Roleplay Horizon >> Character Profiles >> Storylines Battle Grounds >> Art Battles >> Literature Battles Galbadia Garden The Gateway >> Forum Games >> Clubs Entertainment Ship Debate Sector Website Promotion That would be my suggested layout, I referenced the game as much as I could. In the first category, you have your news forum, help forum, and the last forum titled 'Deling Train' is for introductions and departures for new members and those that are leaving. The second category is focused on your main theme, and all of the forums are pretty self explanatory. I created the third category with art aspects that your forum had, including roleplays, fan fiction, graphics, literature, etc. I would like to explain what I had done with the roleplay forum though; the character profiles sub forum is for members to submit their profiles, and then staff can approve them. The story line sub forum is for members to create a backstage topic to the main one, this topic will have discussion for the roleplay, and any comments such as 'I'll join!', etc. This idea would keep a lot of out of character posts in the roleplay. The main forum, would be where the main topics for the roleplays are placed. Lastly, we have the general chat category. The first forum is the general discussion, with a sub forum for forum games ( also known as the 'Spam' forum on your board ) and a place for the clubs. Afterwards, you have a forum for entertainment - where videos, music, movies, games, etc - can be discussed all as one. You can make seperate sub forums for say; video games and media, but other than that I think it'd work out fine. Last in that category is a forum that you already have, if you fail to see it gain more activity, it'd be best to remove it from your board and think of something else to replace it. Closed / old topics should be left within the particular forum that it belongs to unless it's really not necassary ( like a flame topic ), then it should be placed in a forum where only staff can see. Legend: Bold text represents categories, normal text represents forums and text with '>>' beside it represent sub forums for the forums above. The activity for the forum seems to be lacking, throughout the time I've been on the forum, no more than five people have come on, including members and guests. You should try improving activity by holding more contests that get the members more involved - I really wouldn't consider choosing a banner for Christmas a contest unless the winner is receiving a prize in some way. This is why I didn't include that forum and added graphic battles and literature battles. The staff themselves can hold official contests for all the members to participate in, but members could also challenge other members, and then once they are done, staff can attatch the poll for others to vote to see who is the winner. It can be for fun, or you could reward every winner with five free posts or so. The fact that you are affiliating with other forums is great, though try to find some topsites to join, that usually brings in a fair amount of members as long as your affiliate button looks decent, and your description is interesting. There are many top sites focused on final fantasy, but you could even join other gaming or roleplay topsites if you can find them. While all the staff are active, some are lacking in posts greatly and for a forum of this size, the amount of staff you have truly isn't necassary. Demote the ones who do not contribute to the board in any way besides posting. Overall; I think forum could do better with a more compact layout, the appearance is good though some of the graphics should be changed to match the forum better. As for the lacking activity I mentioned; advertise wherever you can as long as you are allowed to. Good luck and thank you for choosing IF Skin Zone for you review. |
I also re-did the rules at the top. ^_^ Oh, and the Contest for the forum banner will end today at 4:00pm. ^_^
Vixen - November 29, 2006 08:24 PM (GMT)
The changes look really good, if you need help with markers or those smaller buttons, feel free to ask =]
Maiden - November 29, 2006 08:48 PM (GMT)
I was thinking of making a skin contest for the forum cause I feel like we need to have one just for FF8. ^_^
Vixen - November 29, 2006 10:19 PM (GMT)
How many people on this forum can skin?
Maiden - November 29, 2006 10:30 PM (GMT)
I know Legend can and Nevi can for sure. :unsure:
Vixen - November 29, 2006 10:46 PM (GMT)
Ah, well :P Hopefully if you make that contest you get a lot of enteries =] I'd enter If I could find the time.
Legyv4 - November 29, 2006 11:18 PM (GMT)
How come they didnt talk about me? LMAO
Sadhana - November 29, 2006 11:35 PM (GMT)
I like the changes a lot! The forums are more organized now, and it looks nicer overall. They gave some good suggestions.
Maiden - November 30, 2006 12:54 AM (GMT)
I was wondering if anyone would follow that first suggestion and make Forum Markers, Folders, Team Icons, Statistic Markers for us cause I think it would be very neat. ^_^ Also, I was thinking does anyone know how to put the "+" on the Elite Members? Because I've tried to and it doesn't work for me. :anime:
Anyways, I was thinking during the summer when people are on break we can have our skinning contest for the forum to make this place look good or if anyone can find time we can do it after X-mas. ^_^
Anyways, I was thinking during the summer when people are on break we can have our skinning contest for the forum to make this place look good or if anyone can find time we can do it after X-mas. ^_^
Vixen - November 30, 2006 08:18 PM (GMT)
To put the plus sign infront of the names, you have to edit the user group and put this in the prefix:
| CODE |
| <span style='color:HEX COLOUR HERE'>+ </span> |
( HEX COLOUR HERE ) is where you would put the hex code for the colour you want. You also have to add this to the previx:
| CODE |
| </span> |
As for the graphics, I can try and make some for you ^_^ Do you have any specific images you want on the markers?
Maiden - November 30, 2006 08:43 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Vixen @ Nov 30 2006, 08:18 PM) | ||||
To put the plus sign infront of the names, you have to edit the user group and put this in the prefix:
( HEX COLOUR HERE ) is where you would put the hex code for the colour you want. You also have to add this to the previx:
As for the graphics, I can try and make some for you ^_^ Do you have any specific images you want on the markers? |
HA! That was like easy, I'm such an idiot. :lol: And thank you Vixen. ^_^ For the images I would say THIS PIC HERE would be cute. ^_^ But if you can't work with it then try finding like and Squinoa/FF8 picture. <3
*pokes Vixen* Don't worry this X-mas I'm getting my photoshop back so I can do all this again. :lol: :hug:
Vixen - November 30, 2006 09:16 PM (GMT)
Hmm... here's something I tried with a smaller picture, but even with it being smaller, it's really hard to work with.
or
* shrug * I didn't think it'd be too difficult, but it was XD :squall: It'd actually be easier / better without the picture, and if it was just smaller.
or
* shrug * I didn't think it'd be too difficult, but it was XD :squall: It'd actually be easier / better without the picture, and if it was just smaller.
Maiden - November 30, 2006 09:33 PM (GMT)
That's good, but if you wanna see what it looks like without the pictures then your welcome to it. ^_^
Vixen - November 30, 2006 09:45 PM (GMT)
There is a pre made set of markers for this skin though, that matches the buttons. Those would match best =]
Maiden - November 30, 2006 10:00 PM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Vixen @ Nov 30 2006, 09:45 PM) |
| There is a pre made set of markers for this skin though, that matches the buttons. Those would match best =] |
Those are cool, I might just get those to, but I'm going to like right after X-mas close this forum down and fix it up more with GFX. ^_^
korukunuki - December 1, 2006 03:43 PM (GMT)
looks great! good job