I believe my website is ready for a review. It is a gaming clan revolving around forums, but I am using non-forum pages on my site. I currently have 75% of my forums done. My main page done with a news system in place. My contact page is finished. And I will be adding some more links to various forums on my site. I just need a review of it at its current stage and tell me if I'm going in the right direction. [link]

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I keep getting the message "you cannot use or view these forums" and ive signed up and everything

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If you want my honest opinion, I'd say it's quite...average. It has the essentials needed for a clan website (though there's no member list?) And seems to be adequet so far. Your forums need work (the logo isn't even changed yet), and you might want to build in a link back to the homepage from the forums so that one can return there after reading the boards.

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i think the main page is not quite good you need to work on it. cause making page so simple some time cause the lose of attention of the visitors cause normally when a visitors come to your site they mostly get idea of your site from main page so don't make your default page so simple are so complicated, i think you should add some links. menue bar. and wat your site is about.where user should go if it's all about the fourm. or simply redirect your page to forum page.

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I kinda dislike the width of header; make it the same width as the rest of the website. also ( i guess it is the margin-bottom of header) spacing between header and the rest of the page is a bit too big.. 5 pix will do just fine..
add hover class for your left column links, menu links are to close to each other so visitors can get kinda confused.. different color or weight can make a big difference..
IMHO way to simple for a clan page.. missing the clan members page, information about your clan, and other clan related things..
if this is your first website, it`s pretty good start, all you must do is keep on improving it..
don`t be angry, but so far 3/5.. you can do better!

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Yeah the banner and other sections of the page dont look like they fit too well together. How did you go about designing this? did you just decide and build this as you went along? The design looks awfully too simple IMO with minimal borders and too many solid backgrounds. Try and and come up with something a little more original(Its just too basic I think). If you haven't already I suggest you draw out your designs on paper first and decide what you would want to include. This will help you gather your ideas a lot better and you have something to follow if you forget. The design doesn't have to be in real detail but it should provide you with enough information as to what you originally wanted. Don't worry designs can change and you can alter and add/remove things as needed. I think this process will help you conceptualize your ideas better before you even start coding.

Heres what I think looks amateurish:
- You sections spaces, navigation, content area, and footer are divided by solid BG color. I personally don't think this works well. I would suggest you come up with a more subtle way to divide them up. Use of different tones or borders can help. Maybe even texture images if they are of the right kind and can tile well.

- Navigation is too simple. Again the text sitting on the background is too plain. Maybe use background images for the links and give them different states. This isn't hard to do in UL, LI list and if you code it right you can accommodate any number of links you wish to add later with ease.

- Footer is too plain again there are many techniques to improve it visually.

The overall text and background combination you are using for different sections of the page should be slightly different for each part. This will help break up content like headings, articles, and what ever else is in it. HTML doesn't give you much control so your going to have to make good use of what ever tags you can and also images. Just don't be afraid to try new things and move away from plain solid backgrounds and white text only. Like I always say the more you do the more you keep learning so keep at it. For your 1st, 2nd, 3rd site its pretty good.

Oh one last thing I've noticed your html code is still using br's? your links aren't an ul li which is the best way to do them. Try and pick best ways to do things as well and move away from the easy route which is usually the bad ways. With ul li you can use css to further spice up the look in your case you cant or wont have much control.

 

 

 

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Well, I made this in only a few days. Also, my forums might be buggy from the transfer. Well, I'm working on it as I go. I'm nowhere near finsihed. I am going to add a clan members page as soon as I get a few members. I am working on the forums right now and will change the logo as soon as possible. Thanks for the comments.

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It's decent, needs more features, a live chat, like IRC, or even just a shoutbox, would REALLY help, especially since it's a clan site. You can get a really nice simple shouldbox here, if you make the iframe on it fairly small, no one will even see the ads! I use it on one of my own sites!

http://www.freeshoutbox.net/

Anyway, the banner is fairly nice, simple, clean, and suits the site. Your forum is SMF too, which is really easy to integrate with your website, so I recommend you do so, it'd make it look far more professional, and make it easier to find news and such.

Again, needs more content, and as mentioned, a members list would be nice too, but it's a good start.

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Well, I just recently switched to SMF. I am keeping it seperate to keep it truly professional. I don't like the idea of intergration of forums, because it can make loading times take a while. Also, I am going to create my own shoutbox so I can have the ultimate amount of customizing it. I am still working on it.

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It shouldn't take noticeably longer to load as long as the forums are hosted on the same site, and you're on DSL or better. As for the sho0utbox, GREAT! Making your own is always the best option if you have the know how! (Which I unfortunately don't. )

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