How to improve this site

[ash]

Some of you may have seen a thread that was actually a review for one of my sites but kind of got round to discuss this site and what could be done to improve this site. www.davidcastle.org/BB/

After discussing things with David, we are considering making a few changes and hopefully improvements to the site. Which will hopefully help attract new members and not scare off any existing members!

So the first question i guess is, do you want to see any changes or do you prefer the site as it is?


Mods
One of the mods i'd be keen to install is a Search Engine Friendly mod which will help the site have more pages indexed, i've found an excellent mod which i've set up and tested on a demo site.

If any of you are familiar with PHPBB you'll know there are a host of other mods available, so if theres anything you'd like to see included post it here and we can all consider it.

Themes / Skin
Probably the biggest change will be visual and their are a host of free themes available, users will be able to select their favourite skin so they can see the forum the way they like best.

Suggestions on favourite themes are welcomed and here are a couple of good sites, so again if you'd like a particular one included post it here, we'd then need to decide on which theme to set as default.

http://www.phpbb-design.com/templates/

http://www.phpbbhacks.com/templatesdemo/

Logo
Do we have any graphics gurus here? Perhaps a logo for the site is in order, i know David has a theme he's like to see used but i can't remember it off the top of my head so perhaps he can pipe up with his suggestion again!

Look forward to hearing all your thoughts.

Ash

[MuNKy]

Hi Ash. Is it your cricket forum website that you are referring to? I'm a bit of a graphics guru and can help with a logo but I'm not that familiar with modding the forums.

[ash]

No i'm talking about changes to this forum!

I'm happy to add the mods but what mods if any would you like to see, what skins / themes / templates would you like to see?

[MuNKy]

oh, whoops! I didnt look where this was posted, i just followed the link from your PM!

WE NEED MORE EMOTICONS!!!

I think we should make it look completely original and not use a theme at all!

[ash]

More emoticons - Check!

Original Design - Mmm, I can hack templates around and if you can do the graphics we could be onto something there. but perhaps offer a few choice of skins would still be a good idea.

I know David had a few design ideas he's like to see implemented.

[MuNKy]

There's a specific package of emoticons that look really good. I'll see if i can find them again!

Sure, I dont mind helping with the graphics. I also think giving the members a choice is a good idea too.

[ash]

How about a useful links box or section?

I came across a great tool that Crankydave linked to elsewhere.

I often find myself searching the forums for a link someone has given, if  a link is deemed worthy enough it could be added to that section.

[MuNKy]

That sounds like a great idea. Link to cssplay and other really great websites.  Make it an rss feed too so we can add it to firefox  

[ash]

There are so many mods available for PHPBB but it depends how far people want to go with it.

[ash]

How about features a bit like WPW with active topics, latest posts boxes etc?

Personally i love latest post boxes!

[ash]

That sounds like a great idea. Link to cssplay and other really great websites.  Make it an rss feed too so we can add it to firefox  

You mean have the forum posts available on RSS feed?

This could be done........

[Tubby]

I think you could do anything you like with it . . It needs improving.
As far as I can tell the only thing going for it is a few good core members.

[ctabuk]

Great Stuff - all true Tubby - thanks for making my day :wink:

I like the smilies here  www.timruss.com/marketing/stepbystep/index.php?

[ash]

Okay so, if i do a few mods on my test site add a couple of templates, and then if we all like the look we can integrate it on to this site and then we can work on a custom template.

Otherwise if we start with a custom template it'll take us ages to get anything done.

[ash]

Okay, not a great deal of feedback then!

I'm thinking less is more, a couple of simple mods, rss feeds - Just testing these on my test site, Munky can you tell me what i need to do in FF to test them? Do you just punch the URL in?

Search Engine Friendly URLS

& then a few skin / themes options.

If we get that integrated it should help attract a few more visitors and hopefully interest the current ones a little more too.