Distension - [reviews: 1]

[femaleuser]

Forum URL: distension.proboards.com/
Forum Name: Distension

Forum Description: A Fantasy and Supernatural RP, we've been running for five years. We've changed a lot over all this time, but still have the same goal: providing a fun and unique roleplaying board. Our members have access to a variety of races, unique abilities, and can participate in quests. We have quests that are always available, as well as special quests. Members can also roleplay in the present or any part in the past.

Notes: We recently made a new skin for our forum. Feedback would be highly appreciated. Also, advice on any matters of the roleplaying forum would also be a breath of fresh air, such as rates and critiques. Is the site uninteresting? What can we do better? Etc. 

Thank you very much in advance.

[femaleuser]

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[femaleuser]

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[Clannibal]

Hi! Here's my review. General thoughts on the overall appearance and the feel for someone viewing as a guest.  I try to be honest about my feelings.

I have never liked that forum layout, which seems to be overly used as of late. Still, that's just a personal opinion. It is different from the default style, so immediately it has more character.  The colors, though I do like those colors on their own, are a bit too bright and contrasting for me. The layout already makes things feel cluttered to me, but I especially think your forum would benefit from better category title bars. Either make them a different color so they stand out more, enlarge the font, put spacing between sections, or consider using images as the title bars. Right now as it is, everything just blends together and there's no focal point for a guest. The sidebar has a lot of extremely useful information and I mostly like all of it, but it seems to just get overpowered by the bright and cluttered layout of the boards. (I am using a tablet so it may effect the way the sidebar seems so thin in comparison to everything else.)

I think larger font in the board descriptions would help the eyes focus more on the board material. The biggest font on your site right now is the sub board text heading on the right and it feels odd how the font is a different style and a different size from the info to the left. The different colors, though I think you're on the right track, I feel are too bright. It draws the eyes to the wrong information. If the brighter colors were switched to the board name and description on the left, my eyes would be drawn that way, instead. Personally, I think the white font on the brightest aqua blue is not desirable to the eyes, either.

The background is nice, but I don't feel it matches the bright blue.  I think it's the yellow stars that throw me off.  It should be very easy to open an image editing program to change the hues to colder colors.

The name of the board "Rules and Stuff" seems unprofessional. Is there really just a lot of stuff in there? No biggie, though. People will get it. I would say put something more like "Rules and Guides" since you also have the newbie thread.

Woah, that's a lot of rules, and they are spaced pretty close together, might be a long and hard read...

Rule 1; immediately sends a negative message to me as a guest. It's meant to intimidate and good job; now I'm scared. (One of the first things a guest will look at in a forum is the attitude of the owner and their staff.)
Rule 2; I get, but I think it's something that could be moved into the actual thread containing the template.
Rule 4; I've always disliked the one account per character rule. It works for a lot of people, but generally, for ones like me, it's a big factor in the decision to not join. Multiple accounts means a lot of work.
By rule 8 I'm still very nervous about the attitude and general disdain for mankind.
Rule 18 is disappointing. We can never ever double up in a thread? Even if it's prearranged?
Rule 19 is, too, though I understand the reason for it. It sucks for people who can only post a few times a week, though, but still want their characters to progress in plots they come up with involving others.
After reading your rules, here's how I feel: no individuality is allowed. You have things you want done exactly your way and you made it clear that you're going to be overbearing about all of these nitpicks. Personally I'd be scared of joining and forgetting one of these many rules at some point. I also feel like I'm joining a job instead of a place meant for relaxation and creativity. What if I want to join as a merman with red hair and black skin with purple eyes? I'll never be able to find a picture to use, yet I have to have a picture and face claim of my character and an avatar of them. It will greatly limit my creativity. Face claims just seem odd for a fantasy subject, as well as the rule that I can only use real things in my pictures instead of, say, a pic of my own personal Minotaur character.  Plus, I can't personalize any of my accounts at all, so instead of joining a forum to express myself, well...yeah.

For people who love fantasy, there are a lot of great species and variety for everyone. Almost too much, unless you've really been gaining a lot of members to fill up the numbers quick! In which case, great. It must be frustrating though for people to have to choose only seven out of dozens of species. I have no idea how I'd pick!
Ok, on the the minor rules... Wow, possibly longer than the first set!
...biggest complaint is making a character and never knowing if they are going to be killed off at any moment. How does that work? Isn't that power playing? I can just walk up to someone, decide that my characters hates theirs, and bring death upon their day old character?
Most of these rules go over my head because I'm not into fantasy or Gods at all. They are all very, very specific. That's good and also... I'd say you're almost sure to have people who get confused or forget. The newbie guide is nice, though.

Character template... Ok, looks nice enough. Wait, do we have to have a theme song for every character? Is that optional? What if I only like Justin Timberlake and Brittney Spears? Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot required upon members. Some of the info seems redundant, mostly just the likes and dislikes, as the personality can cover most of that. Nice job!

I don't see much else at this moment that is concerning. I hope your forum does well.  I get the idea you'll attract a lot of people.

[femaleuser]

Thank you very much.

I will look into modifying the background, colours, layout, and clarity over time.

I've already begun some of the modifications. The rules had been written by another admin in my site, and I never realized they had such a harsh vibe until you pointed it out! I certainly have no wish to scare a poor new member and would rather they feel comfortable with asking me anything. So thank you very much for that, as I hadn't even noticed.

As for separate accounts, that sadly cannot be helped. We have a points system, which only works with separate accounts. This is also why we don't allow doubling, as we had members who were trying to get more points for their character by roleplaying with themselves.

I shortened the rules from 19 to 13, made the numbers bold, but will look into further improving visibility.

Rules and Stuff was made into Rules.

I also removed the Minor Rules and will work on instead merging them with the FAQ, as they were all simply limitations to prevent things like powerplaying.

We were planning on upping the character max or abolishing it.

Characters can be killed, but a Staff member must approve that it is fair. Characters who are new can always leave, and avoid the fight.

[Clannibal]

Ah! You are so welcome. My personality type just picks up on things like that pretty quickly. It's always important to draw people in, instead of making them scared to join, right? Life is busy enough, especially since you folks seem to want to draw an 18+ crowd. So you can expect you'll have a lot of busy young adults who want to go to your forum to escape reality and indulge in fantasy. Cater to them!

As for the theme, again, just a personality thing. I've always suspected I have ADD (lol) so complicated skins can make me feel lost pretty quick when there's a lot to look at. I didn't think of this before, but maybe the background is actually contributing to that. Just a theory. I'll have to come back sometime and check it out on my desktop, too, as that changes the look sometimes drastically with bigger screens!

That does explain a lot about separate accounts. It will turn some people away, but there doesn't seem to be a lack of people who don't mind it, that's for sure. In the end it may not be a huge deal for you guys.

Character maxes I can definitely understand.  Maybe, since you have a point system, you can tweak the system to allow members to buy extra characters once they max out. People who think they can handle it will go for it, most likely!
Maybe an occasional advertising contest or a "of the month" could have an extra character as an award?

[femaleuser]

I'm working on the colours. Switched the colours of the subboards like you suggested, and took out the yellow of the stars for the background. Until I can find a more suitable background, it shall be what I use.

I took out the white on blue, replacing it to grey, as I found black too harsh and another colour too overpowering. I'm still fiddling with some of the other colours, such as the bright blue.

I absolutely love your character max idea and have told my other admins to see their opinion on it.

I've received some complaints about the skin being different sizes for different computer screens and am trying to find a fix.

As for the theme, I asked my members when we switched over (we had a more traditional style board before), and they all prefer this one. So I will be keeping the current layout. However I highly appreciate the input you have given me.

[femaleuser]

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[femaleuser]

More reviews are always appreciated.

[femaleuser]

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