Hello everyone, I am still kind of new to MyBB but the plugins system, warning system, and a few other features are what hooked me from phpbb. I just got my website up a few days ago and am working on a couple of mods for it. I am using the Apart Twilight theme and have a few posts up for now as the website is still small.
Website: http://www.asreyion.tk/
Things I am working on:- An issue tracker for projects.
- Downloads center that is integrated with NewPoints.
- A navigation menu to navigate the website easier.
- A user bar at the very top for user information.
- An "expanded" subforum view."
Your theme is waay too simple, and doesn't feel like a gaming forum at all. I recommend customizing it. You should also NOT used a .tk. No one will take you seriously. Remove the portal, it's useless imo.
I also think you should make it more obvious what your site is. The title & overall site make me think gaming, until I read your forum display. Then I realized it was a company or something that develops games.
I use a .tk because i can't afford a .ca at the moment, also I am working on a slightly different name, and the portal is just temporary. I'm gonna add a better home page once i get a little better with MyBB's systems.
(2012-08-13, 06:15 AM)XerShade Wrote: [ -> ]I use a .tk because i can't afford a .ca at the moment, also I am working on a slightly different name, and the portal is just temporary. I'm gonna add a better home page once i get a little better with MyBB's systems.
I'd wait to showcase your site (as showcase suggests your site is ready for the public eye) until you get a real TLD. Hopefully a .com, .net, or .org as they look the best IMO. Doesn't matter with SEO as long as it's a TLD though.
I think the Apart theme is a good choice for a start up; I might edit the header a little as I think that is the "weak" part of the Apart series if the forum IS the site.
What I did see is that it takes quite a lot of clicking to get through to some of your content. This is the breadcrumb to the issue tracker:
Asreyion › Our Projects › Asreyion Worlds › Development › Issue Tracker
I think the first question is "What is this forum for?" - are you using the mybb setup to build a site that does not expect a lot of user participation or are you intending to build a community?
Once you have that then you should look again at the forum sections and the index wth the eyes of a new user. Does it look appealing? Is it clear where they can participate? Are you setting a quick indication of a sections purpose so users feel that they can post?
When I was using phpBB the subforum layout was different and showed teh Asreyion Worlds forum something like this:
News & Updates
Development
- Developer's Diary
- GitHub Repository
- Issue Tracker
General Chat
- General Discussion
- Tutorials & Guides
- Plugins & Addons
I am talking with my friend who is doing the Benign online project now and we are deciding how to re-vamp the website into a forum that is nicer. I am thinking just making boards for our projects and linking the users somehow.
Well, maybe a better approach is one board for Benign, one for Asreyion? You could put the two boards in a subdirectory I guess and then link through from a snazzy homepage for the whole site. But your current domain is Asreyion so I would go for the two boards. Do you have a lot of crossover between the two games as far as userbase is concerned?
If you went with the current board being JUST Asreyion then you could easily use the layout in your above post for the index. It would be better.
I think I saw a thread somewhere about using the same users table for two forums. I am not sure how it panned out.
I am working on the multiple boards thing now, the main concern is people having to register multiple times to use each board.
Yes, that would be a total PITA.
I know. I could jsut set the users table, and have mybb run a task to sync stats and stuff.