Please REVIEW

[Robert Kelso]

First off, I'd like to say that I am in NO way trying to "steal", "Influence" or generally disrupt members from Defend.net. I felt that posting in a Martial Art forum would get the best review, since the users will know what they want.

Bascially, I also have a Martial Art forum.
It is fairly new, but never-the-less is still of great quality, with friendly users and generally an all rounder.

With this in mind, I'd like a REVIEW of the my site (Note that I am not asking/forcing anyone to sign up, as I respect this forum and its owner(s)).

What do you think?
What could I improve?
What could I change?
etc...

URl: www.martialpoint.com

Thank you for any comments in advanced, and have a great day

[Ghost]

alright mate, clean layout, not sure on colours of it yet but that takes time to get used to so not sure. couple of things stand out for me
1. the title you have designed is way too amatuer, get going in fireworks or something Ai and design something sensible.
2. the first thing people read is news. feedback and help. stick it right at the bottom, they need to see the actual forum first as this is the priority.
3. you have general discussion twice, it doesnt make sense to have the same title twice even if the content is meant to be different it will confuse people.
4. you cant just have chinese korean and japanese martial arts.
what about mma, boxing, thai boxing bjj, escrima,jkd etc. you are missing out what will be the largest contributors to your forum you NEED seperate sections for this as is on this forum. other martial arts isnt good enough for this, these other martial arts will be the ones that make the most posts, just look at the forum stats on here.
5. i would have a diet section as i beleive this will gradually feature more heavily when martial artists wake up from their slumber.

anyway hope that helps and good luck with it and again change that title it looks like you did it in paint.

[Robert Kelso]

Hey Ghost, and thanks for your feedback.

Colours not good enough? I've just put the skin up, and I'm am still tweaking it heavily around the design area, so don't worry, it will be sorted soon.

1. Title too amaturey? Couldn't agree more. I guess this goes under the design as stated above, I am still sorting this out. I've just got a decent computing system up, and I can't find the correct font to do the header in. Once I do though, I can assure you improvement.

2. Thanks for this. I've never noticed that before. Since it has announcements in though, I am not too keen on moving it. However, I'll message a few other people over MSN and see what they think about it too.

3. Yes, the content is meant to be different.
General Discussion in the Martial Art forum is basically anything that doesn't fit into other forums. However, the General Discussion forum in off topic is so people can discuss ANYTHING. (Obviously within forum rules).
I might change it into 'Off Topic' though, since your feedback has been very useful thus far.

4. I see this now. I don't usually like to add *too* many forums, but tonight I'll see to it that I add MINIMUM 1-2 more forums in the martial arts section.

5. Diet section? To be honest I felt that 'Training/Fitness' had this covered. I guess I was gonna change the title to 'Training, Health and Fitness' anyway.

Thanks again for your feedback, it is really appreciated.

[Ghost]

no problem mate, the colours are basically ok, growing on me, can you do anything to separate the threads slightly within each topic,in terms of space i mean.

i personally feel quite strongly about the news etc sections being moved down, or just leaving news up there and moving help and feedback to the bottom that would work, it just takes up too much space and doesnt leave enough to entice those that just glance.

how about an events section as well? for competitions etc.

IMO dont worry about adding more sections, i feel it looks too small and there arent enough sections, i think you could easily get away with another 5 or more even, in fact i think it would make it feel like there is more going on.
a gallery if you can afford it as well might be nice. you have the basis for a nice forum, will keep an eye on it.

p.s. id stick some google adsense on there in a couple of places to generate some more money.

anyway do as you see fit, im only one person the view of the majority must be heard.

[Ghost]

ok one more thing, sorry lol, personally i would keep news at the top, move introductions up to the top,

id move help and feedback to the bottom in a section with a new name and heading because they are related and nothing to do with news and arent particularly interesting but are sections you should have, id have off topic on its own in with its own title and heading.

if that makes sense it would be:
martial point:
News
introductions

Martial arts:
as it is but with new categories as discussed

Off topic:
just with off topic in it for now, this would feel more logical in isolating it from the other discussions imo.

Help and suggestions:
feedback
help
(at the bottom as its least interesting topics on the forum)

thats what id do anyway

[Robert Kelso]

First off, about the events idea.
Mind reader? I was going to make one, but nowhere near this stage. When we're a lot bigger. I've got a lot of surprises to come with this whole events idea, but for the moment they're a secret.

Also, lets skip to the adsense part. If you're a guest/a regular user, there is adsense. (Between the first and second post of every topic, in the User CP section and in the Private messaging section). I feel that they're not too big and ugly in these places, and are eye catching.

Heres my suggestion for the whole forum thing.

-Martial Point-
--News
--Introductions

-Martial Arts-
--Basically the same, except with the new additions.

-Off Topic-
--Off Topic
--Feedback
--Help

Something like that?

[Ghost]

yes mate that would be a big improvement in layout imo.
id still personally separate the feedback and help as they arent discussion threads.

the off topic section, id call it general personally because i would put the events section in there.
thinking over it more id do it like this

-Martial Point-
--News
--Introductions

-Martial Arts-
--Basically the same, except with the new additions.
--(id rename general discussion here or remove it. id call it "other"

-General- ( this allows you to have a subsection that is more general but still fairly martial arts focussed)
--general discussion
--Events
--journals
--gallery( at a later date)

-helps and suggestions ( id keep this out of the way but you do need it)
--Feedback
--Help


i think that would give the forum more feel, youll have the news and intro bit, the main topics and then a general more community/social based section and the help and stuff at the bottom where it belongs lol. sorry just adding new things as i think about it. develops in my head etc.

[Robert Kelso]

Anyone else?