graisbeck — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:16:26 +0000

When I first opened the site it just seemed all to much, as mentioned previously the background does need to be changed. Also, your text is small and can't be enlarged using the browser, my eyes are not what they used to be

cinimodaz — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 22:30:06 +0000

I honestly dont like the new background it seems too jumbled and loud plus on my older computer at work ran very slow. I also noticed a bug or maybe just on my computer but I tried a game when i finished and tried to submit it just went to a blank php page.

I do though love the logo I think that is awesome looking I have been wanting to do a christmas theme for my site but mine is too new right now.

ewomack — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:40:26 +0000

The design looks overly complex. I can't really tell what the background image is, but it looks like something out of manga... or a spaceship. The first thing that threw me was the name "The Archived." What does it refer to? It doesn't seem to connect with the catch phrase "Your 'Uhh... ' is our goal." Maybe it's a reference I'm not aware of? I don't know. Add to that a picture of Santa reading a list and I have to admit I was confused about where I was. I only dug around a bit because I was reviewing the site. I'm not sure I would have otherwise.

Nonetheless, the site has promise. The "stories" section is a good idea. People post stories and others rate them. You should showcase and explain that area more on your homepage. The forums seem very general, but they could go somewhere with a general theme. But I don't understand why you have your own toolbar. What does it do? Why would I want to download it? It very well might be useful, but I could never tell from the homepage (and the link goes directly to the .exe, so no explanation is given as to what members are downloading).

Find a theme. Apply it to your site. Or emphasize the story area. The site needs some focus, but it definitely has promise.

remembrancebook — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:13:55 +0000

"TheArchived.com is having some technical dificulties and some features may be unavailible for a short while" was immediately offputting and was the first thing I noticed.

The second thing I noticed was "Not a Member? Join TheArchived.com today!".

At that stage, it wasn't aparent what your website was. Why should I join TheArchived? What is it? I didn't know.

I then logged off, as most people probably would.

The thing that would have kept me would have been some simple text top centre explaining what the site was and what I could expect to get out of the site. It wasn't there, I didn't bother looking. I just left.

Sorry.

bigu — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 09:07:19 +0000

The schemer is so good!

I love it in first sight

But you need more content for your site!

Cheer,

bgaNET — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:39:54 +0000

The template is shocking at first but when I looked around and found out more about the site the template didn't stick out so much anymore. As was mentioned above, something like category images instead of plain text headers may make it a little easier on the home page.

mfdc — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:12:38 +0000

I think it definetley needs an 'identity' as opposed to a generic template. It is however, clean. Better use of more colours and perhaps some nice images might quickly let users know what your sites about.

sin0cide — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:49:22 +0000

Looks clean I was wondering if this site will have images? because some images on the front should stop it from looking so plain with all that text. remember to utilize your space for popular things and don't just use anything to fill up the space.
If you are gunna have images then popular thumbnails will fill up spaces really well and help your users get what they want quickly so they don't loose interest.

sitesupport — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:14:34 +0000

Thanks for the comments, I've worked on it a little bit and I like it more now. I don't think I'll be changing to colours though.

Megan — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 15:01:48 +0000

I was thinking that this theme doesn't seem to match the topic. It's a pretty generic blue that's very non-offensive but doens't catch attention at all. For your site you should be using more dynamic colours (yellow and orange are often used for humour sites).

Then I clicked on the portal link at the bottom to see what you were running and there it is - you've got the default theme. That's not going to fly with anyone who's seen it before. I generally don't like these portals because a) they tend to look very boxy and b) they tend to include things that aren' t necessary and you end up with a cluttered interface. This clutter takes away from the real content that you actually want people to see.

On your site about half of what's in the sidebars doesn't need to be there - statistics, who's online, latest members etc. None of that is the content that people are coming here to see. The real content actually takes up only 2 boxes in the centre and there's nothing that sets them apart from the other parts of the page.

The least you could do is try to change that colour scheme, remove some of the boxes from the sidebar (you may end up with 2 columns instead of 3), and find a way to make the content stand out more.