[Announcement] Finally some REAL Criticism

"...I don't particularly like the skin, though. You have a great banner but a skin that doesn't really match up with it too well. The black background really just has nothing to do with Sonic, I would make it a whiteish blue color, and have more to do with Sonic characters. You can barely see the board titles with the blue font and such...

I agree. For a Sonic site about the Sonic community, we have nothing, not even gray Sonic anymore. If it were possible to turn the black background into something, that would be more interesting.

...Your layout isn't bad, here's some suggestions:
You have a board called " New Member " then under that you have one called "All About You " I don't think you need this at all. I suggest you move your member Introductions board to the top under Community Issues and also move About You down to the general chat area. You don't really need that category.

Eh, I disagree with splitting it up, but that's just me.

I like how condensed your sonic discussion area is, and you seem to do fine with it the way it is.

I personally am here and there on the Sonic discussion area, but if we're doing fine with it, then fine I guess.

I recommend you move your gaming discussion category above off topic, as your site has more to do with gaming than off topic. Same with Fan Media, move that above general topic and below the gaming discussion area.

I agree I suppose, assuming it won't harm those boards' discussion.

Other than those, your layout is great...

Okay.

...Here is the biggest problem. You don't want all these groups displayed at the bottom. Only display your Administrators and Moderators and Registered Users down there. You don't need the color legend for these special groups you have down there, it is very unattractive.

I don't see how, but okay. I personally think it helps to explain why all these people have such crazy colored names, but whatever.

You have 4 administrators. This is way too many. You don't want 4 administrators on any site, most sites with 500k+ posts have no more than 3 administrators. I would recommend you stop hiring Admins entirely for now, and just keep the 4 you've got.
The plus side is these admins are all active.

I once again disagree, as I always do on this issue. While we don't need more admins, especially with their activity, but to have less would be risking the site more, and I personally would not take that risk.

You have too many moderators. For a board with 35k posts, having 5 moderators is a little much, 3 is an ideal number. For now, you're good with what you've got, don't hire any mods until you've got about 65k posts.
The plus side again is your staff is quite active..."

Same thing here.

Zezima wrote:"...I don't particularly like the skin, though. You have a great banner but a skin that doesn't really match up with it too well. The black background really just has nothing to do with Sonic, I would make it a whiteish blue color, and have more to do with Sonic characters. You can barely see the board titles with the blue font and such...

I want the gray Sonic black, or a blue one actually. Keep the background color though, just add pics to it.

...Your layout isn't bad, here's some suggestions:
You have a board called " New Member " then under that you have one called "All About You " I don't think you need this at all. I suggest you move your member Introductions board to the top under Community Issues and also move About You down to the general chat area. You don't really need that category.

I want it to be the same as it is.

I like how condensed your sonic discussion area is, and you seem to do fine with it the way it is. I recommend you move your gaming discussion category above off topic, as your site has more to do with gaming than off topic. Same with Fan Media, move that above general topic and below the gaming discussion area.

Naaa...

Other than those, your layout is great...

...Here is the biggest problem. You don't want all these groups displayed at the bottom. Only display your Administrators and Moderators and Registered Users down there. You don't need the color legend for these special groups you have down there, it is very unattractive.
You have 4 administrators. This is way too many. You don't want 4 administrators on any site, most sites with 500k+ posts have no more than 3 administrators. I would recommend you stop hiring Admins entirely for now, and just keep the 4 you've got.
The plus side is these admins are all active.
You have too many moderators. For a board with 35k posts, having 5 moderators is a little much, 3 is an ideal number. For now, you're good with what you've got, don't hire any mods until you've got about 65k posts.
The plus side again is your staff is quite active..."
NOooo..

:<_<:

I really don't see a problem with anything he mentioned, bar the skin and the layout. The skin is really dark, and while not an unattractive skin, it doesn't really make you scream Sonic when you see it. Sonic's happy, and the theme is really dark.

The layout could me moved around a bit, but I'll leave that for when someone is ready to do some moving.

Zezima wrote:"...I don't particularly like the skin, though. You have a great banner but a skin that doesn't really match up with it too well. The black background really just has nothing to do with Sonic, I would make it a whiteish blue color, and have more to do with Sonic characters. You can barely see the board titles with the blue font and such...

...Your layout isn't bad, here's some suggestions:
You have a board called " New Member " then under that you have one called "All About You " I don't think you need this at all. I suggest you move your member Introductions board to the top under Community Issues and also move About You down to the general chat area. You don't really need that category.

I like how condensed your sonic discussion area is, and you seem to do fine with it the way it is. I recommend you move your gaming discussion category above off topic, as your site has more to do with gaming than off topic. Same with Fan Media, move that above general topic and below the gaming discussion area.

Other than those, your layout is great...

...Here is the biggest problem. You don't want all these groups displayed at the bottom. Only display your Administrators and Moderators and Registered Users down there. You don't need the color legend for these special groups you have down there, it is very unattractive.
You have 4 administrators. This is way too many. You don't want 4 administrators on any site, most sites with 500k+ posts have no more than 3 administrators. I would recommend you stop hiring Admins entirely for now, and just keep the 4 you've got.
The plus side is these admins are all active.
You have too many moderators. For a board with 35k posts, having 5 moderators is a little much, 3 is an ideal number. For now, you're good with what you've got, don't hire any mods until you've got about 65k posts.
The plus side again is your staff is quite active..."

:Oh No: WHO WROTE THIS?!

Other than adding a dark blue sonic or something to the background of this black monotone color, most of those may be real criticism, but bad criticism at that. The only other thing he mentioned that might work, but may not be better would be to move all about you and intoductions to general chat, and then noobs may not realize it's there and join and say nothing.

Super Racer Z wrote:Other than adding a dark blue sonic or something to the background of this black monotone color, most of those may be real criticism, but bad criticism at that. The only other thing he mentioned that might work, but may not be better would be to move all about you and intoductions to general chat, and then noobs may not realize it's there and join and say nothing.

I agree. I am also trying to get a blue sonic in the poting background but I don't know how to do that through the admin panel.

Please keep the background black. It's easy on the eyes.

I concur. White or any very bright color would rape my sensitive eyes, and many others.

It's pretty darn unanimous about the post backgrounds. Add a Sonic. Yeah. If I knew how.

Few comments on the layout, though, which intrigued me personally the most.

Can someone give me some advice on that.

Oh.

And the staff suggestion. Input on that as well.

And, Mly, I asked a guy to criticize it. If you want any more information, PM me.

Zezima wrote:It's pretty darn unanimous about the post backgrounds. Add a Sonic. Yeah. If I knew how.

Few comments on the layout, though, which intrigued me personally the most.

Can someone give me some advice on that.

Oh.

And the staff suggestion. Input on that as well.

And, Mly, I asked a guy to criticize it. If you want any more information, PM me.

I don't think anyone here knows. I've been trying to figure it out though.

Here's my layout suggestion:
LEGEND:

Category
--Board
--**Sub - Board

The Sonic Community

--Forum Center(merge community boards together, so we can debate/post announcements and news in board, it looks more organized)

--The Situation Room (internal staff discussion)

--Incinerator (community dump)

Hall of Welcome (insert more creative name here)

--Introduce Yourself (merge all about you and new member, these aren't creative names in the slightest and you can fit all of them in one place, it seems like two unnecessary boards that could be one necessary board)

Sonic the Hedgehog (name of the entire SEGA franchise)

--General Sonic Discussion

--Character Discussion (is there really any reason to keep these boards on life support? half of them don't get more than a thread a week, if that, at least cut down a few)

Gaming

--General Gaming (this is a broad board that doesn't have anything to do with the big three or SEGA, so it should be at the top)

--SEGA (they made Sonic, they should be more important to a Sonic forum than the others)

--Nintendo,Sony,Xbox, in any order

--Computer Gaming/Technology

General Discussion

--General(random)

--Forum Games(I wish there was a way these wouldn't count towards your post count, it's MAJOR post padding)

--Fan Creations (this category of boards doesn't have that much activity either)

I don't want our layout changed really.