Megan — Tue, 25 May 2004 14:10:11 +0000

Thanks for doing such thorough reviews, blackicicle!

When I first look at your site I'm really confused. I don't know what it's supposed to be about. Is it a news portal? Is that it? Or is just your commentary on various issues? It's not clear at all and it's hard to give a good review of the site without knowing what the point is.

Okay, now I read your last comment If you're building this around the forums you need to integrate them more! There should be links to the newest threads and opportunities for people to comment on the content. I even had a hard time finding the forums link, since its at the end of the navbar (the last one a person would read). Every content item should have a link to "comment on this story" that would send people directly to the forums.

I think you're going to have problems with such a general focus. What you could do is highlight prominent news items and give people the opportunity to comment on them and discuss. Good, controversial news items are sure to draw a crowd - the challenge is to keep it under control.

In general, I think the design is nice, but uninspiring. Same goes for the logo.The forum should be skinned to match the rest of the design.

blackicicle — Sun, 23 May 2004 09:10:37 +0000

Thanks for your comments all, Its really appreciated!

The main purpose of the site is to build a community around the forums. As you can see from most of the content, everything points back to the forum.

kenzee — Fri, 21 May 2004 21:58:59 +0000

your site is very newsy..I like the muted colors, nothing is too busy. Alot going on, but its not distracting. Content is interesting..good site imho!

whitey — Fri, 21 May 2004 17:26:44 +0000

i think it looks pretty good...not sure what you are trying to accomplish with it, but its easy on the eyes at least

icerider — Thu, 20 May 2004 22:37:35 +0000

The banner needs to be bigger, and like carmack said, the logo should be moved to the left. I get this feeling that it's one of those advertising portal sites, needs to be more unique. Finally, I have no idea what's the site about, is it an all-around site? or a portal site like carmack said? You could possibly add a line of text in your banner telling what the site is about.

carmack — Thu, 20 May 2004 21:43:21 +0000

I'm not really sure what the point of your Web site is. Are you trying to create a Web portal like Yahoo? Assuming that this is what you are trying to do, how do you plan on competing? I think this will be your biggest hurdle. Good luck with that.

As far as the design goes: I would start with moving the logo to the left. Users are used to seeing it on the left, and the way it is now looks very bare. As for the site colors everything is just blah. Nothing really stands out. Just a lot of content. Although this does make for a very clean look.

Busy — Thu, 20 May 2004 07:53:14 +0000

Welcome to TWF blackicicle, could you please review a few sites as per the posting agreement, Thanks