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Post by s162216 on Apr 15, 2014 13:56:11 GMT -8
Hi, I'm the admin for Primary Immunodeficiency Support Forum, - which can be found at primaryimmuno.proboards.com/ - and I would appreciate any comments or feedback about the forum from anyone. We're an independent support and discussion forum for those with Primary Immunodeficiency - which represents a collection of rare genetic immunodeficiency conditions - and aim to bring patients together for collective support and advice. Thanks Sam
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Post by s162216 on Apr 16, 2014 5:58:00 GMT -8
Bump - anyone?
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Post by s162216 on Apr 17, 2014 10:31:58 GMT -8
Bump
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Sept 9, 2014 11:18:12 GMT -8
ChillyChica
YSN Admin Staff
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April 2014
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Post by ChillyChica on Apr 17, 2014 16:13:41 GMT -8
Hi there!
Your forum is very clean, fresh and simple. That is good as simplicity reduces lag! I like how you made very good use of the navigation bars, making custom tabs to link to other parts of the forum, makes it feel more like a website, not just a forum. The color scheme is clean and fresh although gives the site a bit of a 'clinic' feeling, like a hospital or government website. If this is the feel you were going for, awesome, as I do not mean that comment in a negative way, just as an observation, giving notice to the subject matter of the site. If I had to make one suggestion, it would be to make a 'fancier' banner, I don't really know if that's the right word or not. Like get a photo online that you like maybe of a meadow field on a sunny day, or collage a few photos of a child playing, senior citizens walking, man running a marathon, etc and resize it in windows paint to like 1500px by 450px and load that with your logo and text then appearing on that. Something more inspirational, happy, motivating, etc. I think it would add a personalized touch, and pleasing to your members giving the gravity of the forum content. Good luck with your site and take care!
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Post by s162216 on Apr 17, 2014 18:56:36 GMT -8
Hi, Firstly thanks for the comments on the forum, its nice to get an outside perspective seeing as I'm the creator of the forum design, colour scheme etc and don't tend to get to discuss much about it with those outside the forum. I'll post a longer reply in the morning, but I am currently working on a newer alternate 'brighter' colour scheme and it just takes a while to experiment and see how things work out. We do have a slight problem in that we are a little restrained in the colour scheme by the turquoise of the forum logo as it unfortunately means that complementary greens/yellows tend to be too bright to read clearly, although I am still experimenting. I use Colour Scheme Designer 3 to help create the colour schemes as it has various different colour models etc, and is very useful and informative (especially if you turn on 'tooltips' under the help menu) with regards to finding colours which work well together. Thanks, Sam
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Post by s162216 on Apr 21, 2014 17:53:37 GMT -8
Bump
Going on from what I said above, there are now several other colour themes that can be chosen, and I'm going to shortly ask the members whether they want us to change over to any of them as the default.
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Post by s162216 on Apr 22, 2014 9:24:27 GMT -8
Bump
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Tony Mura
New Member
Its always a good day when you learn something new!
Posts: 177
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May 9, 2014 12:52:42 GMT -8
Tony Mura
Its always a good day when you learn something new!
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April 2014
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Post by Tony Mura on May 1, 2014 3:50:02 GMT -8
Looks good and appropriate for a discussion forum relating to this sort of illness. Possibly i would add a Link to a donate Button to a foundation of your choice that may help fund some sort of program for better understanding. I would create some sort of flyers to those who subscribe to you and have the funding provide useful links suggestions. Post something out to them in the mail.
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Post by s162216 on May 10, 2014 6:40:50 GMT -8
ChillyChica thought it may interest you to know that we now have a new colour scheme which is a bit "brighter". I created a series of new colour schemes and had the members vote on which one we should use; initially the old blue scheme and the newer one tied together so we had a second round where the new colour scheme won. What do you think of it? I have also recently created a new "help centre" to hopefully make the forum easy to use as we do get a lot of older people who are perhaps not quite as good at using technology (and I have had a few people ask for help), you can find the help centre at primaryimmuno.proboards.com/page/forumhelp what do you think? I am looking at ways of improving the banner, but don't want to make it too 'flashy' etc. Tony Mura Sorry for the delay in replying, and thanks for the comments! We deliberately don't have a link to a donate button etc as we are a worldwide forum (although mostly UK based) and there is no real international body that accepts donations (there is an international patient organisation, but its funded by the national patient organisations). We also we just want to keep the forum as a place of collective support and not have members barraged with demands to donate etc as all of the patient charities already do that. We already do advertising, and have sent posters to nearly every hospital in the UK and Ireland which has a clinical immunology department; our members are also encouraged to print out the poster and post it up in their clinic etc if their not already displaying it. We do get a few members from the advertising, but most of them find us via Google etc. Thanks, Sam
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Sept 9, 2014 11:18:12 GMT -8
ChillyChica
YSN Admin Staff
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Post by ChillyChica on May 13, 2014 5:43:50 GMT -8
ChillyChica thought it may interest you to know that we now have a new colour scheme which is a bit "brighter". I created a series of new colour schemes and had the members vote on which one we should use; initially the old blue scheme and the newer one tied together so we had a second round where the new colour scheme won. What do you think of it? I have also recently created a new "help centre" to hopefully make the forum easy to use as we do get a lot of older people who are perhaps not quite as good at using technology (and I have had a few people ask for help), you can find the help centre at primaryimmuno.proboards.com/page/forumhelp what do you think? I am looking at ways of improving the banner, but don't want to make it too 'flashy' etc. Tony Mura Sorry for the delay in replying, and thanks for the comments! We deliberately don't have a link to a donate button etc as we are a worldwide forum (although mostly UK based) and there is no real international body that accepts donations (there is an international patient organisation, but its funded by the national patient organisations). We also we just want to keep the forum as a place of collective support and not have members barraged with demands to donate etc as all of the patient charities already do that. We already do advertising, and have sent posters to nearly every hospital in the UK and Ireland which has a clinical immunology department; our members are also encouraged to print out the poster and post it up in their clinic etc if their not already displaying it. We do get a few members from the advertising, but most of them find us via Google etc. Thanks, Sam Hey Sam! Wow! I took a look and I really like the new color scheme! It's brighter and the colors match very nicely together! Looks great! Have fun & Take care!
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Post by s162216 on May 13, 2015 4:14:59 GMT -8
Bump
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Post by s162216 on May 17, 2015 7:31:41 GMT -8
Bump
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Post by s162216 on Aug 16, 2015 9:28:44 GMT -8
Bump
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Aug 14, 2019 11:01:05 GMT -8
Mixed
And the new sun rises. With it comes restored hopes and renewed dreams.
1,168
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Post by Mixed on Aug 28, 2015 6:49:23 GMT -8
Hello s162216, I thought you forum topic might be interesting to look into so I decided to go through it as a guest to give you some perspective and hopefully helpful commentary. Normally I start with first impressions and then I'll go a little deeper exploring layout, content, and other important points on a forum. That being said, let's start! First Impressions:
Oh wow! Nice! The forum banner is very clear in where I am and overall, my first impression is more of an official website than a discussion forum. I think this could be very good to help people relax and feel like they can speak. The colors also give off a more relaxed impression. Color Scheme: I really like the colors you've chosen. They are both bright and welcoming. As I said in the first impressions, they give a good feeling are not depression or overly obtrusive at all. The one color I would suggest you consider changing is the color you have set for staff members (you and john). It really disappears on the white and then is completely masked by the blue that highlights a board when hovering over it.
Layout (Categories, Boards, etc.): I think your categories and board layout is perfect. Three categories, six boards, perfect for keeping the focus primarily on your topic. I might suggest you change the names of the "General" and "Off Topic" Categories just to be something less common place like how you have a category called the "Reading Room"; however, I wouldn't know what to suggest in place. This change isn't a big one and I doubt it's really needed.
In your News bar, I noticed you have thread links. From just reading the titles, I can tell this is a great use of your News. Visitors and new members could find great use in having these available up-front. This also goes for your use of tabs beneath your forum banner. Having those available along with the minimal, succinct categories makes your forum VERY easy to navigate. Congratulations! This is great because no one likes to have to dig and I would bet someone really looking for information would like it even less.
I do have one suggestion. I really like your general layout and feel of your forum. However, having the boards all the way to the window edge makes it feel a bit crowded despite it not being crowded at all. Normally, a forum with a width set between 90% and 95% still feels full without feeling like you've zoomed in.
Rules: As with nearly all forums I review, I took a peak at your rules (which were very easy to find )...
So I just read your rules and wow. They are very nicely written and conclusive for a discussion forum. I also like the disclaimer you included at the very beginning of your rules. The only thing I would recommend here is to have someone read over it for small typos, missing punctuation (mostly apostrophes from what I noticed), and perhaps choosing a better word here or there.
I also like how you have help articles listed in your sidebar here. You are a VERY organized forum and I can see why you have the members you do.
Playing around: Honestly, I was clicking links to see where they went and how easy it was to find my way around. While I did this, I noticed your sidebar didn't quite know what it was supposed to do. It stayed available with its very helpful articles on the Help and Rules boards (I was using the tabs below your forum banner). Meanwhile, it would appear and then disappear within a moment from the General Board, Newly Diagnosed, Information Bank, and Search boards. You might want to look into fixing this because it feels a bit like a tease.
I just refreshed your home page and this tease of a sidebar happened here as well.
Overall: I think you have a great forum set up! There are tiny improvements that could be made, but then again, there will always be those tiny improvements no matter what you do. Also, I believe it is a really good thing you did by putting together this discussion forum for people who may or may not have other discussion outlets available.
Congratulations on building a successful and likely meaningful forum! I wish you well!
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Post by s162216 on Sept 6, 2015 8:07:55 GMT -8
Hello s162216, I thought you forum topic might be interesting to look into so I decided to go through it as a guest to give you some perspective and hopefully helpful commentary. Normally I start with first impressions and then I'll go a little deeper exploring layout, content, and other important points on a forum. That being said, let's start! First Impressions:
Oh wow! Nice! The forum banner is very clear in where I am and overall, my first impression is more of an official website than a discussion forum. I think this could be very good to help people relax and feel like they can speak. The colors also give off a more relaxed impression. Color Scheme: I really like the colors you've chosen. They are both bright and welcoming. As I said in the first impressions, they give a good feeling are not depression or overly obtrusive at all. The one color I would suggest you consider changing is the color you have set for staff members (you and john). It really disappears on the white and then is completely masked by the blue that highlights a board when hovering over it.
Layout (Categories, Boards, etc.): I think your categories and board layout is perfect. Three categories, six boards, perfect for keeping the focus primarily on your topic. I might suggest you change the names of the "General" and "Off Topic" Categories just to be something less common place like how you have a category called the "Reading Room"; however, I wouldn't know what to suggest in place. This change isn't a big one and I doubt it's really needed.
In your News bar, I noticed you have thread links. From just reading the titles, I can tell this is a great use of your News. Visitors and new members could find great use in having these available up-front. This also goes for your use of tabs beneath your forum banner. Having those available along with the minimal, succinct categories makes your forum VERY easy to navigate. Congratulations! This is great because no one likes to have to dig and I would bet someone really looking for information would like it even less.
I do have one suggestion. I really like your general layout and feel of your forum. However, having the boards all the way to the window edge makes it feel a bit crowded despite it not being crowded at all. Normally, a forum with a width set between 90% and 95% still feels full without feeling like you've zoomed in.
Rules: As with nearly all forums I review, I took a peak at your rules (which were very easy to find )...
So I just read your rules and wow. They are very nicely written and conclusive for a discussion forum. I also like the disclaimer you included at the very beginning of your rules. The only thing I would recommend here is to have someone read over it for small typos, missing punctuation (mostly apostrophes from what I noticed), and perhaps choosing a better word here or there.
I also like how you have help articles listed in your sidebar here. You are a VERY organized forum and I can see why you have the members you do.
Playing around: Honestly, I was clicking links to see where they went and how easy it was to find my way around. While I did this, I noticed your sidebar didn't quite know what it was supposed to do. It stayed available with its very helpful articles on the Help and Rules boards (I was using the tabs below your forum banner). Meanwhile, it would appear and then disappear within a moment from the General Board, Newly Diagnosed, Information Bank, and Search boards. You might want to look into fixing this because it feels a bit like a tease.
I just refreshed your home page and this tease of a sidebar happened here as well.
Overall: I think you have a great forum set up! There are tiny improvements that could be made, but then again, there will always be those tiny improvements no matter what you do. Also, I believe it is a really good thing you did by putting together this discussion forum for people who may or may not have other discussion outlets available.
Congratulations on building a successful and likely meaningful forum! I wish you well!
Hi, Thanks for your comments on the forum, sorry that I've not been able to acknowledge them a bit more timely, I've been packing up for moving to a new area and along with my job I've not had much time for the forum. I'm glad that you like the colour scheme, originally we had a blue and white, fairly neutral style scheme, but eventually we decided to branch out into other colour schemes. After I created several new ones we ended up having the members vote for the theme to be used as the default, and the violet style one won after a second round of voting. I must admit that I've never noticed that the admin green is difficult to read against the white, but there again I suppose I do use a colour calibrated monitor as I do a lot of photography, and most people have their brightness/contrast set way too high. I'll try to find an alternate colour I think. Regarding the sidebar appearing and then disappearing on certain pages, it's only supposed to appear on custom pages (i.e those involving the help centre as the links on it are all to help articles). Unfortunately I'm not very experienced at all in anything beyond basic HTML, and I got somebody else ( Brian) to provide some code that would only make the sidebar appear on custom pages. I'll see if they've got any suggestions about this. I agree about the forum being rendered a bit wide, so I reduced the width to 95%. There was a reason for it being set at 99% originally (something to do with the main logo dimensions I think), but I can't even remember the reason why and the reduction doesn't seem to have caused any problems so far. The rules have had a lot of thought put into them by the forum staff, hence the initial disclaimer as we don't want to be responsible for inadvertently causing harm to a member as they followed advice on the forum. It's been quite a while since I last looked at the rules, and have given them a few corrections to make them easier to read. I'm very happy that you like our help articles, as many people who join aren't necessarily very experienced with computers or forums, so we try to be of help. The unfortunate problem we have is that we now have lots of registered members, but barely 25% regularly login and less than that actually post. To be honest the very nature of the forum doesn't really lend itself to having a high activity rate necessarily as it's mostly people wanting answers to a question. The forum actually originally stemmed out of one on the website of the Primary Immunodeficiency Association in the UK, and when the charity unfortunately closed about 4 years ago I started a new forum to help carry on the old one - this was mostly because I had found it such a useful supportive place online when I had been initially diagnosed with Common Variable Immunodeficiency (CVID) in 2010. Back then the PIA forum was practically the only place online, but now Facebook groups are taking a lot of the old activity, and there are a lot more places around than previously. Although our activity is somewhat down compared to 3 years ago, we'll keep going as long as there are people coming to the forum. Thanks, Sam.
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