How good is my robotics forum?

[jeffreyye]

Hey there here is my forum on robotics rncirowro.boards.net ! How can I improve the forum's design? Also I had been giving free surprise accounts to some robotics teacher and students. Do you think giving surprise accounts is a good idea?

[jeffreyye]

Craig ?

[jeffreyye]

Bump

[jeffreyye]

Bump

[jeffreyye]

Bump

[bigballofyarn]

This is just a personal opinion and is not meant to be taken offensively.

The background and the snowfall blocks are too distracting for me personally. Those kind of countdown timers are usually better about 10x smaller and at the bottom of the page.

I think you'd do better without the translator bar. I selected a few languages at random, and it's not translating most of your page anyway. Maybe pick 3 languages max if you know you have members from other areas. Otherwise, it's really not needed at all.

I would suggest having less boards until you have more activity. When you have too many boards and little activity, it makes a forum look a lot deader than it really is. The numbers on the main page are what people see right away. If all I see are zeros, I probably wouldn't join.

If you are set on keeping the flag counter and the map, I would center them since everything else on the page is centered.

The orange/grey color scheme is nice.

I'm not sure what's going on in your banner. I would suggest a banner that not only relates to the forum, but is also easy for new members to understand. I don't know what the gear-like shape is.

Good luck to you and your new forum.

[jeffreyye]

Thanks!
But bigballofyarn do you think that giving surprise accounts are great? And also where are the snowfall blocks?

[bigballofyarn]

The big blue blocks at the top of the page that are counting down to something. They look like they have falling snow inside of them.

I'm sorry, I don't know what you are asking me. Giving accounts to whom?

[jeffreyye]

I mean giving surprise accounts to teachers and students which they do not know that I will be giving them an account.

[jeffreyye]

bigballofyarn

[bigballofyarn]

I don't think you're allowed to register forum accounts for other people.

When people register, they need to virtually agree to the TOS themselves.

[Alex R Jamison]

this is what i would do:

1. have a solid colored background. the one you have is a little busy for my tastes
2. have a smaller, simpler banner at the top. again, too busy, and you dont need the qr code there if someone is already on the site.
3. i would remove or minimize those giant blue boxes.
4. i think you need less sections to start off with. you seem to have a lot of boards that could be put into one board.
5. nice member icon. keep it.
6. center your map/flag country count. it doesnt look right being left justified.
7. i would add custom new/old icons that match the theme of your forum and make it look like yours
8. i read above that you want to give away accounts. you cant make accounts for ppl. they need to read the terms, put in their own bday, and do that themselves.
9. the translate box that's under the date doesnt do anything when i click on it. then the bing translate button makes my firefox freeze. not sure why. could be me.

[jeffreyye]

Alex R Jamison the reason why I used bing translate is because I am aiming for Chinese visitors and I know Google is banned in China.