MyBB Community Forums

I'm not one who likes to land on a portal (instead of a forum), but I was just looking at my forum versus the portal page. The portal actually looks more "happening." It looks more active. I'm thinking I should give people the portal URL instead of the forum index page.

Forum or Portal

Thoughts?

Generally, I am very against using the portal as a landing page. People are coming to your site to have conversations with others, and your news is not particularly interesting. You should spend some time adding more dynamic elements to the forum index instead. e.g.



(this is an incomplete mock-up)

Well, I think it depends on how you use your portal. I also use my portal as a landing page. I have some links to things people might see and have configured latest announcements to only post from the forums I want on the front page.

I do agree with Brad though re the index needing to be a bit more exciting - I have added a simple gallery to mine for the latest uploads. (same as the one on the index )

http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/portal.php

http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/index.php

Leefish your portal is very cluttered but it at least communicates that there is a lot going on your site. Plus since so much of your site revolves around downloads and photos it's a bit different.

Yes Brad, my portal is horribly cluttered - I will draw more attention to the collapsible sidebars I think.

However - that is a risk on any portal. My members like the portal - they like that things are going on on the page and that it IS so busy and full of stuff - they find the index rather boring

It also encourages posting in specific areas of the site as their post will get a "spotlight" on the front page.

I much prefer landing on a portal page (preferably as the site root and index.php) than directly into the forum index.

My "portal" http://www.pavementsucks.com/
My forum http://www.pavementsucks.com/board

As I have a lot more stuff than a basic forum, I want to show bits for everything we offer. Plus my "portal" is not very "portal" looking in my opinion.

Pavemen - I agree regarding the portal page as the direct landing page on site root - sadly, I have not been able to figure that out. Instead, I just use a redirect in my site root to send users to the portal direct.

Gosh you have a lot of forums. I think that where there are many forums (like yours) then index can be a bit overwhelming.

I am curious about that "watched threads" on fallberry's menu bar. I think I will join to check it out.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I've gotten comments in the past about my forum looking to plain. I have to rap my head around this, because I like forums that are plain. Although, I do think one of those latest topics lists above (or below) the forum might be nice. That would call out topics more.

(2012-05-13, 06:35 PM)pavemen Wrote: [ -> ]I much prefer landing on a portal page (preferably as the site root and index.php) than directly into the forum index.

I thought there is a way to put the portal in the root. I was just going to search here to see how to do it with the default MyBB portal. Well, unless someone can point me to it.

(2012-05-13, 06:46 PM)Leefish Wrote: [ -> ]I am curious about that "watched threads" on fallberry's menu bar. I think I will join to check it out.

My Watched Threads button takes you directly to your subscribed threads list. It's the same as selecting User CP|Subscribed Threads. I always look at my subscribed threads when I come here, so I added a button to make it easier at my forum. But with my forum being low traffic, I never use it over there.

(2012-05-13, 06:46 PM)Leefish Wrote: [ -> ]Pavemen - I agree regarding the portal page as the direct landing page on site root - sadly, I have not been able to figure that out. Instead, I just use a redirect in my site root to send users to the portal direct.

Gosh you have a lot of forums. I think that where there are many forums (like yours) then index can be a bit overwhelming.

I am curious about that "watched threads" on fallberry's menu bar. I think I will join to check it out.

I have a tutorial posted here about how to get the portal as your home page, I use it on all my sites. yes I have a lot of forums. I was starting to expand my content and some things got in the way and I stopped. So far, no one is complaining and using subforums a lot helps some.

Portals don't make good Landing Pages. You shouldn't let it go to that for obvious reasons.