Partworks, Model Railways & other models (2 reviews)

[Nscalerr 🐺]

Forum Url: railvillage.proboards.com/index.cgi

Forum Name: Partworks, Model Railways & other models.

General Description: A forum for people to display and comment on the type of models people are building.

Wonder if anything needs changing or adding, (or maybe removing) to get more people in and keep them on the forum, or is it, that my forum is too much of niche one to attract lots of users.

[Nscalerr 🐺]

bump

[Nscalerr 🐺]

Activated the shoutbox on the forum for members only. What do people think of the forum, be critical??

[writersblock]

Hi nscalerr! I took a look through your site. While I don't really know anything about models, I did my best to give you some advice!

What I Liked

• The spectrum of your site. The fact that all models are welcome allows for great cross-collaboration and doesn't let the site become too niche. I think having a forum for model makers is a great idea!
  
• Your rules are very thorough and convenient with links.
• You have some fun board descriptions!
• I like your posting levels and member ranks.
  

Where to Improve

• Why is the background image of what I'm guessing is a lake? It doesn't seem overly relevant to the topic. If there isn't a good picture to use yet, using just an abstract background might be better. Maybe of something like wood planking?
  
• There are an awful lot of boards. It's kind of overwhelming to look at, and it would be hard to find something specific if I were a member. Perhaps make your overall categories (Tin Shed, Roundhouse, etc) more specific and condense your subboards as they make sense. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about models, so I can't say specifically how to do this. But headings such as "Resources" "Model Types" and "The Build" make it easier to find what a use is looking for. Also, the order of your boards is important for making things easy to find.
  
• The grey of the header doesn't really seem to fit with the blue and white theme of the rest of the site.
  
• Some pictures would really spice up the site. Perhaps ask for permission to use some pictures of your members' models on your site or create a board asking for member photo submissions. If you can't really use any pictures, try to spice up the layout of the site a little - since it doesn't differ to far from the generic layout.
  
• Make sure grammar and capitalization are consistent. You site title shouldn't have a period in it, and your board capitalization varies. Either capitalize the first letter of the first word in each board name, or capitalize the first letter of every word in board names throughout. Also, just read through your board descriptions and make sure they make sense.
  

I hope that helps you some! Let me know if any of that didn't make sense.

[Nscalerr 🐺]

Thanks for the comments. I hadn't actually noticed the inconsistent capitalization, but have fixed it now. I decided to have only the first letter capitalized and it looks a lot better.

I agree about the header and it will be changed to be consistent with the rest of the forum.

[writersblock]

Great, glad I could help! Good luck with the site!

[Nscalerr 🐺]

Done some massive changes to the forum, what do people think ??

[Nscalerr 🐺]

Bump

[Nscalerr 🐺]

Bump

[Nscalerr 🐺]

Bump

[Nscalerr 🐺]

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[Nscalerr 🐺]

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[Nscalerr 🐺]

Bump - New theme being worked on.

[Nscalerr 🐺]

Bump

[Tumbleweed]

Nice critique, writersblock!

Hi Nscalerr 🐺,

My rate scale: Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good & Excellent (Very few sites get more than a good from me, just so you know. It is only the really experienced site designers that get good or more)

First Impression: Fair

There is something about your site that is very welcoming. I think it is the colors and textures used, partly, but I also think the professional sharp looking title helped too. (This is what I noticed in the first 30 seconds)

Layout: Poor

The border texture seems to be cut off on the right and I think it might be the side bar doing it but how to fix it, I'm not sure. Maybe try decreasing the width of the forum and see if that helps. I'm also not crazy about the side bar being right up against the forum. I don't know if you used a plugin or created your own side bar but I do think it looks "right-heavy". If your site was moved to the left, that may help. Just some thoughts.

I do like that you used a sidebar and I guess it is cool you have threads listed there although they seem kind of squished in there. Maybe widen it a tiny bit?

With the side bar in the fixed position, it is cutting off the last thread listed. An option would to make it scroll with the page or if you widen it a bit, add manual scroll bar within that bit.

Theme (colors, graphics, text colors, etc): Fair

Having a eye catching title (or banner) is so important and I love the font and style you picked. It looks great. I like the texture behind your title.

I like the border texture and color. One thing you may want to consider is making the side bar recent thread listed, a little smaller font. I guess it confuses me where to look, the forum and boards or the side bar. What I'm saying is, as the admin/designer you should think where you want your members to go first. The side bar or forum and then make the eye be drawn to whatever you choose. A smaller font in the side bar will make one focus more on the forum, for example.

Now I'll be nit picky but if I had done the colors of the text, I would of had the darker text as the title and the lighter for descriptions. Again, this is drawing the eye to the thing you want them to see first. But that said, it is not a big deal because it looks clean, soft and just nice.

Maybe at some point you may want to change the default icons (the folders, etc.) to something a bit more interesting but not a huge deal at all since ProBoards icons are nice.

I like the little touches with the Forum age and date add on.

Content: Good

I like the number of boards, not too many. I like that you have fun names, I like that you have good descriptions that are to the point. I think your site has interesting topics and with a quick look, your grammar, spelling and punctuation is impeccable, from what I can see and unlike me right now, as I'm sleepy today. Nice job!

The only suggestion I have is to add rules and somewhere at the top of your site, (usually the first board). I think most people want an idea how relaxed they can be and simple do's and don'ts. Just a good idea to outline it now to your members so no one is surprised. The other suggestion would be to move the first board down a few notches. I guess kind of a rule of thumb is to have rules first and then Introductions next as that would be the first thing you probably want new members to do.

O.K. I'm done. Over-all, Fair. As I said before, you did some things really right by my first impression. Very welcoming to me and take my critique with a grain of salt, my opinions are just mine and only meant as suggestions to try or not.