Splendid Isolation - a board for people who live alone

[ailsar]

splendidisolation.boards.net/

Any help, ideas, new members welcome

[Comatose]

Lets start off easy. I will assume that you have no prior knowledge of proboards or their systems so I'll give some pointers to spruce up the place.

How about running to the theme library to snatch up a free skin for the site to make it more appealing to the eye? All skins there are free to use as long as credit is not removed and chunks are not taken for use elsewhere. Most have easy alteration for colors if you like the layout but want a different scheme to it. Along with that, they are a one-click install on your forum if you look at the library while logged into your admin account!

Secondly, get a customized banner! There are some lovely people out there in the Graphics Request Board. Be sure you read the sticky so you know how to request what you need.

Next, work on more information threads. At the moment it is pretty much a free-for-all with guests being able to post and possibly spam the forum with no restrictions. Same with trolls and general trouble makers, they will see there are no posted rules and go ham on the place. So be sure to make a sticky thread somewhere with your forum's rules. Oh! and don't forget to clearly state your disciplinary breakdown such as a three strike system or insta-bans for certain offenses.

Another thread you'll want to have as a sticky is what your site is about. Looking at it now, there doesn't seem to be any direction. If it wasn't for the title of this thread, I'd have no clue what the board was about. That would also go into your banner design. Include the tagline you have somewhere on the main page so people know at a glance what it is.

Seeing how the board is pretty bare bones, there really isn't much to give an opinion on so I will leave it at those suggested pointers.

[Kalo]

I like where Comatose is going with this rate - definitely plenty of value here. However I want to go a little more in depth and see where we can help you move on this

You have a beautiful subject. Your subject indicates your target audience is a low income or disabled public target. This is fantastic these days as there is many difficulties with disabled people feeling isolated with nowhere to turn. I have family in this position and I would very much recommend this community to them.

I would like to see you develop this board further with a theme as comatose had indicated before. I haven't reviewed alot of the newer preloaded themes available for us but the few I have seen give a great variety of options to choose from. You can review them from your admin panel under theme settings - when you choose a theme you like, most of them can be loaded directly from the page or you can download them to your device and add them to your forum manually. Whichever is easier for you is the method you should work with - you can always reach out for help in the support forum as well when you have trouble. Alternatively we have members that take free time to create customized skins. You could easily reach out to them and get something custom fit to your subject.

Graphics will come along with the theme but buttons and icons for indicators are something many theme designers have not implemented in their theme design. My guess is because you manually have to alter these one by one and cannot build these into the skins (as far as I'm aware) you should definitely review options with your theme designer if that is the route you choose to follow.

As for coding on your forums - keeping it simple is probably your best option as your subject is not a complicated one to build upon. I wouldn't add to much on the code lines outside of what is already available to the basic settings.

Reaching out - Advertising will be important here. You will see many disabled people are on social media/ or playing mobile games. If you reach out and advertise within the community guidelines of those outlets - you will strike the right target audience you are looking for. You can also see them in community settings too - reach out to your local community outreach programs and offer a free place for local programs to reach the public.

I hope these suggestions help you out and build on what you have started here.

Kalo