Hello All, I have been interested in Astronomy for a long time now and always wanted to run my own forum, i have run and been part of a few websites in the past so would like to think i am a seasoned webmaster. After a week working with the theme system in MyBB and getting things looking the way i would like i have finally opened the doors on Just Stargazing.
The site is really new, at the time of posting this i had only just opened the doors so their won't be much activity their at the moment. I know my way around the internet and hope that my skills both online and offline can make this forum a success, the diference with Just Stargazing to other Astronomy sites is that i want it to be built by the hobbyist for the hobbyist.
The theme is based off the Mybb theme, i don't have the knowledge in HTML to code a custom theme from scratch so decided to read through the forums here and make some changes to the existing style. I think that what i have achieved looks presentable and functional for the theme of the forum.
The main goal of the community is to become a fun and enjoyable place for people of all backgrounds and levels of skill within the hobby to discuss and chat about various things, relating to Astronomy.
Site Link:
http://www.juststargazing.com/index.php
Thankyou for your time and your feedback is most welcome.
~ Richard
Turns me on to see a nice new attempt at catching some sort of niche. Very nice domain, good luck.
Some tips I think you should take on board.
Too many forums! Way too many. Stick to astro chat. Combine your site news and bugs forums, no need for two, combine some of your others nicely, like tripods and camera for eg maybe, you will know what can go with what better.
Get rid of your market place for now, that's not what people are coming for yet, build a community first.
Change that yellow! Looks a bit basic yucky.
My recommendations sounded like demands, that's because I want you to do well!
This is relevant to my interested.
Signed up.
(2012-01-25, 12:22 AM)Andre R. Wrote: [ -> ]Turns me on to see a nice new attempt at catching some sort of niche. Very nice domain, good luck.
Thankyou very much for your kind feedback.
Quote:Too many forums! Way too many. Stick to astro chat. Combine your site news and bugs forums, no need for two, combine some of your others nicely, like tripods and camera for eg maybe, you will know what can go with what better.
I will look at condensing these, i think that i have the right selection of forums but maybe as you say some of them could become sub forums or merged into one forum rather than having lots of seperate ones.
I have condensed some of the forums, Bugs Now Lives in Announcements. Telescopes now hold Eye Peices and Tripods. Astro Photography contains the picture of the month.
Quote:Get rid of your market place for now, that's not what people are coming for yet, build a community first.
I hear you, i will remove this for all members once the community is built then we can open it.
I removed this, once the community becomes more active i will re-add
Quote:Change that yellow! Looks a bit basic yucky.
This was one of the major problems i had during the build of the forum, i wanted something different but not to horrible, turns out i achieved the horrible part. What would you suggest i replace it with? Maybe a deep green? [/quote]
(2012-01-25, 01:51 AM)Mebes Net Wrote: [ -> ]This is relevant to my interested.
Signed up.
Thankyou very much
Mebes Net i hope you enjoy the forums.
Quote:This was one of the major problems i had during the build of the forum, i wanted something different but not to horrible, turns out i achieved the horrible part. What would you suggest i replace it with? Maybe a deep green?
Try the color
#e9f3fc instead of yellow, it'd look nice as your forums is related to blue and this is a very light color and would look good I believe. Yellow would be kinda useless in these star watching things.
(2012-01-25, 10:35 AM)crazy4cs Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:This was one of the major problems i had during the build of the forum, i wanted something different but not to horrible, turns out i achieved the horrible part. What would you suggest i replace it with? Maybe a deep green?
Try the color #e9f3fc instead of yellow, it'd look nice as your forums is related to blue and this is a very light color and would look good I believe. Yellow would be kinda useless in these star watching things.
Ah that looks very nice now -
http://www.juststargazing.com/ i have made them changes
Thanks for all your feedback and support guys/gals.
Yeah, that color turned out to be great, looking even more nicer and related to astronomical bodies.
Seems like a wonderful forum. I wish you good luck with it