Home & Hearth [Canine RP] | Reviews: 0

[[VITKI VISINDI]]

I'm looking for overall opinions about the settings and general layout of the forum. If you have a code suggestion, please post a link with it or the code itself. I don't want to go sniffing around for where a particular code might be hidden.

The side bar header images are from an older forum, which is why the color is slightly off. I'll be making new headers eventually, but my the photoshop I have doesn't have the images I need to recreate them and I can't copy/paste proper transparent images from photobucket for some stupid reason.

[[VITKI VISINDI]]

bump

[Mixed]

Hello [VITKI VISINDI],

I've been looking to give you a review for a small while now and I hope you are still looking for comments since you haven't been online for a little while. Anyway, my normal review process will start with a first impression so that you know what sticks out strongest for guests. Then I will look into the general layout and some of the content of your forum. Are we ready? Let's go!


First Impressions:                               
It's obviously a canine-based forum and it feels like an RP right out of the gate. Good good! The dark theme also gives it a solemn feeling. Also nice.


Color Scheme:                                   
I'll start with the colors since you've already mentioned them. Honestly, I'm not sure what you are talking about colors being off. Maybe it's my screen but I like the colors and I don't feel any of them are really out of place. The smaller text/poem in the forum banner may be harder to see as it is but the colors seem fine. Personally I like the darker themes.

For the icons that you've used, I like the lantern, but you should know this then makes the setting feel more in a town rather than the wild if that is what you are going for. The snowflake, however, I am unsure of. What is the point of the snowflake? Are you set in winter already?


Forum Banner:                                   
I'm not sure if you've meant it this way, but your banner seems a little bit of a contradiction to your forum title. But I like it. Tramp doesn't seem to have a home in the banner so it feels like the purpose of this forum is for the characters to find their personal home and hearths. 


Layouts & Boards:                              
I like the layout you've gone with. The use of the sidebars for welcome, staff, chat, and affiliates is nice.

I think I would prefer to see the affiliates at the bottom though since they aren't pertinent to the content of the forum; however, as an affiliate, they may prefer their banners on the side but I would think it would then be nicer without the need to scroll (ignore that. I had zoomed out so I could look at your forum while writing up this review). But making the option not to scroll could take too much space from the sidebar, so I would think an affiliate table near the bottom with the Forum Info & Stats could work nicer.

I like the tabs you have above your boards. I really think the use to have easy access for the Updates, Packs, and Spotlights are great! However, the word counter seems a little useless here. It is not accessible while in the boards. Rather than use this word counter, I would recommend the Word Counter plugin by Eton Bones (@ horace) which would put a live word counter at the bottom of the reply window.

In the same area you have a Navigation box. While I enjoy the image and the idea of having Quick links right there, I think it would be far more useful if you had the actual links right there rather than requiring those searching to click yet another link. In order to keep the image, perhaps you could use a hover menu option here. I think that would work really well. Unfortunately, I have never used the hover menu in my own forum so I wouldn't know how to do it.

For a random note to your updates:
1. Your grand reopening hasn't happened yet? The date is 00/00/15.
2. You have a typo in "occasional" in the Role Play News
3. You have a typo in "Congratulations" in the Special Announcements.
4. I think the Special Announcements would do really well with links to their respective threads if you have them.

You should check for typos also in your board descriptions; I found another typo in the description of "Agronai" - "theif" should be "thief".

You boards are nicely organized and there are not an overwhelming amount of them for a new RP-forum. I might suggest you add a short description such as "wilds" or "forest" or something to the board titles so that new members can easily find the type of land they wish to play in, but that is totally up to you.

I would also recommend that you hide the "Ancient Archives" board from guests so that is not on the top of what they see when exploring. This could give them an impression that you are already planning for things to fade.


Rules:                                                   
I always look at the rules to get an idea of the forum admin/staff and to feel out the type of community they wish to create. Your rules were very easy to find. Thank you.

I like your disclaimer about potentials likely already knowing the general rules but asking that they still bear with you and read them.

In the Account Criteria, you should know you have two different inactivity rules that contradict each other. First has deletion after 2 weeks of inactivity and the second is deletion after 1 week without posting. You should probably clarify this a bit, though I think even 2 weeks is a bit steep as people have off-line lives as well.

The rest of the rules are clear, understandable, and/or obvious (such as having a character to be a member).


Overall:                                               
I think you have a great canine RP-forum set up. The theme and layout is clean and clear.

I wish you all the best luck with your forum!


P.S. I would start bumping your thread here so people know you haven't given up.