MEGA CHILLAX

Hi.

First Impression
Very Good
(rate scale=Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, Excellent)
Is this some else's template or your own design? Just curious and I guess it doesn't matter, it is one of the better ones I've seen. I love the background behind the boards and menu buttons. Very sleek and clean design.

Banner
Very Good
I like the font type used in your site name and it is a nice size. I do think the color is just a touch off though -seems a bit more purple-ish blue but it is such a minor difference but still I wish it would have been the same color (hex #191970) .The white text above the banner is very bad. It is vibrating something terrible. I do love the sides though where there are the blue decorative "things" and the screws on either side look very real. Very nicely done.


Layout and theme (colors)
Fair
The layout itself is very good. I like the table with all the info. The head and base images are so unique and well done. The blue in the banner/headers is such a pretty color and very pleasant to look at but you get to the aqua color and it is just off-putting and there is major vibration in it as well - just like the white. With black as your background you really need to be very careful what colors you use. You would have been far better off pulling the gray form your forum border background or used some other mid-tone color. See examples.


There is a fine line between a good blue and neon blue. Your scroll bar blue is in the neon category as is the blue you used in your board titles although I like the blue as the board titles because there is such a thing as over-kill with one color had you used it as your main text color. FYI: Normally, you need to go a shade or two darker with text to get it to "appear to match" other solid colors in banners, etc. I would suggest you tweak all your blues to 191970 or somewhere around there. (Just a shade darker - provided you have permission to alter the layout colors if it is someone else's template.)

The menu buttons are ragged (on the curves) and it is a shame when all the other graphics are so smooth and done to perfection.

I also like your rainbow links, they are amusing. (I use that code too on one of my sites.) Your highlight board colors are perfect.

Content
Very Good
This is where you shine. I'm glad you do have that sup-title text in your banner telling me what your forum is about. I kind of guessed by your title but wasn't positive. You provided a link that takes you straight to your rules and your rules seem very reasonable and to the point. One helpful thing to newbies is to provide basic simple instructions on how to upload photos, post photos, use ubbc and what each button does, provide links to the most popular photo-hosting sites. You know, just some simple how-to's. You would be surprised how many people don't know how to do these things if they aren't computer Savvy or aren't used to ProBoards. In addition, it will save staff a lot of time rather than explaining this to newbies.

But for the most part you have great topics going on, making even me, wanting to join (like I need another site to join, lol) and you have just the perfect amount of boards showing on your main page.

Your grammar and spelling, as far as I looked, seems impeccable. Great job.

Coding
Very good.
What I look at: Visual load (any codes conflicting), actual load time, any errors in IE or FF. How your site looks in all resolutions and then just peak at your coding to see if there are any improvements to be made.
Visual load: I do see your forum border starts off to the side and then they find their place. A couple things you may want to try:

Put your forum resize at the top of your Global Footers. Combine your welcome table scripts together like this for example:

<script type="text/javascript">
// welcome table changes
<!--
document.getElementsByTagName('table')[0].cellSpacing="0";
document.getElementsByTagName('td').item(2).style.display="none";
document.getElementsByTagName('font')[1].style.display="none";
//-->
</script>

Any css style codes could be combined as well. (Of course any codes with the coders name can't be.) Also anything altering the welcome table should be at the top of your Global Headers unless there is another code that takes precedence over them and I don't think you have any.

You may also want to try putting the two codes that are moving the menu buttons above the banner and the code that moves the banner below the ads at the very top or play around with their positioning to see if that helps the visual load.

Actual load time:
Excellent!!! I so appreciate that! I have high speed internet but I hate waiting for sites to load and most often just leave the site and go elsewhere.

Connection Rate Download Time
14.4K 47.44 seconds
28.8K 24.72 seconds
33.6K 21.47 seconds
56K 13.68 seconds
ISDN 128K 5.58 seconds
T1 1.44Mbps 2.31 seconds

I have never seen a security error before so haven't a clue how to fix it but in FF I'm getting this:

Security Error: Content at googleads.g.doubleclick.net/ may not load data from megachillax-v2.proboards.com/index.cgi.

Also FF never likes the way some people write css style tags. Just look up the correct way on a search engine and you'll see they do not use <!-- and //-->. I find if I just remove the forward slashes FF does o.k. with it.

IE gives no errors so you are looking pretty good there.

There is just a tiny bit of scrolling for resolutions of 800 but not a big deal since few people use that resolution anymore and of course all other resolutions look great.

Overall
Very Good.
I just have a major problem with the aqua text color. I'd not join your forum just for that reason as I couldn't stand to read with that color text for long. Also just play around with the order of your codes regarding the welcome table and see if you can get the position switches made so as not to be as noticeable. Other than that, your site is really awesome. One of my favorites for sure.

If there is anything I can clarify, please just ask. Continued luck with your message board.

Thanks for the compliment. It was my pleasure to take a look at your site.

You need to go darker on the font color or by your words, dimmer. Bright or light colors on dark background tend to vibrate and are hard to read. Assuming you have graphics enable on your browser you should see the sample of text colors I posted that you could use- I put the hex color in there as well. Of course there are hundreds of other colors but rather than go for the brightest go mid-range. This site is great because you can test different font colors on your background color. Just play around with the red, green, and blue and you'll get the hang of it. As it is, your aqua color is the brightest or lightest it can possibly be, I think.

Combining the styles (only styles together) and scripts (only simple scripts together) is no big deal. I was just thinking if you are going to try to move all your welcome table coding to the top you might as well combine them but it isn't a big deal. But just for an example in case you ever do want to do this.....you have these two style codes...

<style>
a:hover {
color: 45459B;
text-decoration: none;
}
</style>


<style>
.catbg {text-align: center;}
</style>

you could combine them like this......

<style>
a:hover {color: 45459B;text-decoration: none;}
.catbg {text-align: center;}
</style>

Hope I clarified things a bit better.

I took a look and you said "whiter" but I recommended darker and if I were you I'd go with the 009898 too. Keep in mind,your members are there because they like you (I hope), and they will probably say what they think you want to hear, at least that has been my experience. But it is nice you are giving them the chance to have a say.

Take care.

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