please review or comment on fishseekers.com

Bugger, had a whole review written and accidentally closed the tab!

What I was going to say is that this all looks very nice but I find that my eye is being drawn to the ads. This is because they contrast so sharply with the rest of the design that they automatically draw the viewer's attention. Even though I recognize the shape of advertisements and try to pull my eye away, the contrast still pulls me in that direction.

The overall design of this site is very nice but a little bit on the bland side. I think you need to do something more attention getting in order to compete with the ads (as a designer I know what it's like to have to design something that works with ads that are designed compeltely differently).

Here is an article with more about what I mean by contrast:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/contrastandmeaning

I was also going to say that the reason, IMO, why there isn't more traffic to the forum is because the forum button is so low contrast that it's almost not noticeable at all. If you're skimming over the page looking for what to do next, there is no reason why your eye would fall on the forum tab. In fact, you'd probably ignore it because it is designed to look unimportant. Read the article I linked to see what I mean by that. If you want to pull people into the forums, they need to be featured more prominently. I would add two boxes above the directory to promo the forums and the member photo gallery (or whatever else you really want people to visit - maybe the store?). The poll is taking up one of the most prominent positions that could be used for something much more important.

The forums should be designed a bit better to fit with the overall site. The default vBulletin grahpics stick out like a sore thumb.

This is a nice site overall but with a little more contrast in strategic places it could be a lot more effective

Just quickly I found these 404 errors/dead links on the aquariums:clubs page.

Federation of New Zealand Aquatic Societies
ANGFA Home Page
The AUNZZA Mailing List Home Page
Hamilton and District Aquarium Society

Also because your idea is somewhat novel you might want to incorporate a little blurb about why you're unique on the homepage. The about us page is good but most people might not read this page. I just think it helps people get something out of your site if they know what you're trying to give them. For example "The Anglers Search Engine".

I agree that the adverts are distracting. I can't help but look at that chevy silverado advert, but I guess that's what they want.

yea trying to catch up with the 404's i got over 34,000 links easy..

Ill concentrate on the look...

First, I like the logo... but the banner on top i think doesnt align with the page pretty well, and looks awkward on this current position...

I like the navigation and search bar integration, that's a current trend and it works for a site like this. however it feels youtubeish which isnt bad, but the gray bg buttons makes the texts on it unreadable... as we ll as on the browse area, the gray is too dark try, #c0c0c0 on that area...

Other than those, i think it looks great...

hi

i like this layout apart from like other people have said loose the banners or at least reduce the contrast of them.

The grey menu on the front page needs to be abit more in your face at the moment it looks like a block of nothing (this is personnel preference btw).

if you remove/move the top banner then the tabs will be more apparent and people will see your forum link easier banners are a lot better in the footer.

overall:
design 7, spoilt by adds/banners.
layout 8,
site idea 10.

also you have two title tags on most pages.
nice one

Hello there,

I love fishing, and I have always wanted a site like this one, I have a hard time finding information specifically for fishing. Here is my advice, i think the ad at the top should be moved, possibly a bit lower, but it is a distraction, and draws my attention. Second, the colors are just a bit bland, the gray background is a bit to dim for me. spruce it up a bit and i think you have a winner here
RSG Consulting - Houston Areas Small Business Professionals

Personally, I like the site and you've done very well on the layout -- however; looking at your code, it's an absolute mess, so my review will be in 3 parts.

Currently you have this, which isn't laid out properly and you have way too many keywords:

Fishseekers Portal

I really like the site, its design, colouring scheme and everything else. Its greaaat site!

cool man nice site you got.i liked the logo design.it's cool and nicely designed

wow lots of great feedback i have been away in the uk just got back glad to see everyone is giving littles bits of info!

Thanks

Tommy

Very nice site with PR5. You nicely incoporated ebay auction and yahoo news. Good site.

This Website is very nice, the words scrolling on the bottom makes me crazy but the site it's ok.

just a way to add keywords

Bluesteel;218663 wrote: please review or comment on fishseekers.com we just did a total revamp of fishseekers.com please tell me you likes dislikes if you can or any features or functions i can add to help improve the site i would also like to increase traffic to the forums i get about 2000 vists a day and would love to triple that SEE i am not that greedy i didn't ask for 100k a day.

thanks

Tommy

The used colors, especially the blue, are so pale, including the text which barely can be seen them. My suggestion is to change color from pale blue to deep blue, with elimination the green and using bold black to the hyper texts

wow, really like your site quite extensive, would love to know how you managed to get such a large user base...