Need Some Opinions On My Site No content, but good features if registered

[michaelper22 0]

I've been working with Mambo for ages now,, and finally got a good setup. I have the Simpleboard forum and Community Builder components installed. The address to my Mambo site is http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/, and you can register by clicking the Rgister link below the login area. And I know that I need some content on the site.

Edited March 14, 2006 by michaelper22 (see edit history)

[Albus Dumbledore 0]

i like it, think that you should get a different banner for Xisto hosting though.maybe one that doesn't have Xisto's banner background image... i like how it is set-up with the navigation on left anf right with content in the middle..even the forum is in the middle which i think is cool..did you make the script or is it just a layout for it? and umm i tink the login on the left hand side navigation should be centered just to make it look better other than that i like it... i expecially like the title "The Bus Stop"!! nice choice

[michaelper22 0]

I made the site with the Mambo open source CMS (Content Management System), and the banner is the one that I made (see http://forums.xisto.com/topic/33949-mikes-first-banner-cheaply-made-but-gets-the-point-through/) myself. Those nav bars, as well as the login form, are called modules. I can't change the location of the login form to the middle of the page, so I can't change that, although it could go on the right side of the page. Notice how certain modules appear on some pages but not others.

[Mich 0]

I've been working with Mambo for ages now,, and finally got a good setup. I have the Simpleboard forum and Community Builder components installed. The address to my Mambo site is http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/, and you can register by clicking the Rgister link below the login area. And I know that I need some content on the site.

Very nice and clean. Effective use of increments. I only see on obvious thing. Your "Welcome to the Bus Stop" title line that is a link at the center top bar needs to be color other than grey. When you hover, it turns blue and that is nice, but you can't see it unless you hover. I would guess your style sheet has a directive to make all links grey, but it doesn't work for this particular link. See what you can do about it.

[michaelper22 0]

I edited the entry page (which is located at the document root, http://nyceducated.info/, with no directory specified). It has only a bulleted list with my three sites (or projects I should say), and no dynamic code is run. As far as the dark link colors go, I'll poke around in my template's style sheet and see what I can do.

[fffanatics 0]

Yeah i agree that the "Welcome to the Bus Stop" colors need to be changed cause i did not even see it. I thought it just was a line. I link the clean layout and you already know you need content. I also would change the right sections such that there was a bit more spacing between each topic in "Latest Posts" along with a bit more spacing between each section on that side. It just looks a bit cluttered. Finally, i would move the Xisto Banner to the bottom or condense it and put it on the side just because it takes away from the name of your site. I didnt even know the name of the site because the banner caught my attention too much. It is nice to promote Xisto but at the same time, you have to do it in a way that it doesnt take away from your site.

[Nitin Mangi 0]

It?s a very nice theme, simple and clean.It will be nice if you can improve on the login UI.It should have a title bar like main menu and copyright. If it?s within title bar it will look fine even with left layout, also if you can decrease the size of edit box it will look better. Whole of your site's font is smaller compared to the edit box size. The navigator is not showing the links page a little bug . Name title bar looks out of place in contact page.I cannot read welcome to bus stop on clicking the Home navigation button.Until its highlighted; nice effect but looks odd for a professional site.The center place should be same UI shown change minimally.Like some times title bar is present; in forum its not there and on contact page there are two together. It should be same... in all cases one title bar with white letters.Hope you don?t take it as critics. It?s just to get it better for you.Enjoy ur site...

[catfish 0]

i'd scratch the Xisto banner, instead butting a button (on of the 88x31's) in a "module" below the copywrite, or above if you want.) as it is it just clashes, and it really isn';t necessary to be that obnoxious. And if you are going to go for obnoxious you should at least try to make some money off of it w/ like a google add there or something.

[FLaKes 0]

I think its awesome.. I dont know, I wasnt expecting much but when I saw your page I was like wow. It really looks good, I wouldnt change anything, it expands with no problem when I resize the window, the Xisto banner is ok. Good job on it!

[michaelper22 0]

To answer most of your questions and comments:I can't easily change the font color of the "welcome to The Bus Stop" link, because A) the class doesn't even exist in the stylesheet, and it would probably screw up all the other links on the site. I will work on finding a new template that doesn't have that problem.Both of the Links nav bar links work fine, exept they each show a different message above the one category (don't know what's causing that).I can't change any of the UI layouts. This is because I use several 3rd party components for Mambo, and if I wanted to do that, I would have to learn everything about PHP.The banner is the nice one I made. I like it, and there is no possiblity of removing it! The banner is inserted using the the Banners component. I am under 18, that's why I don't have Google ads on my site.The site is not a professional site, I decided one day that I want to make a nice Mambo site, so here I am today. I don't really want anythig from it; I just want the challenge and satisfaction of maintaining a Mambo site, and the a nice community (that's why I installed the Simpleboard forum and Community Builder components).Thanks to everyone for their compliments.

[gaea 0]

A few quick suggestions about your site:1) The page is formatted in such a way that it needs a horizontal scrollbar when viewed in a browser at 800x600. Perhaphs you could make two versions (a high res, and a low res one), and then display the apropreate one using javascript (if you want me to elaborate about that just lemme know, or you can just search for it on google).2) I like the top banner, but it seems too constrasty to me. It is so strong, visually, that it distracts my eye from looking at the rest of the site (which is mostly in midtones). If you toned down the contrast some I think you'll find the site flows better together.3) Try to keep the middle column (where the content of the indivdual pages, e.g. Home, Computers, Transit, etc) at a fixed width. As it is there seems to be five different widths. This means that the right-hand column (with search, latest posts, etc) is in a different postion neigh every time that you select a new page. Admitidly, its mostly a cosmetic issue, but it'll look more professional if the formatting stays uniform.

[Artem ZHI 0]

I have made a site on Joomla CMS (too most, as Mambo), and I do't have problems with moving the form. But it also is not required to me. If it is interesting for you, may look my design - http://zhicorp.awardspace.com/ - I apologize, that all in Russian, but design to estimate probably if it is necessary, can give you same, you see it we compose and with Mambo

[michaelper22 0]

gaea: I don't really know anything about graphics, but before I changed the template, it looked fine for me. As I mentioned, I can't changed the wwidth of anything very easily with a broad (full-width) template and the components I installed.Artem: You have a nice template, but I like the way I did my site. Ok, I'll add the module title display to the Login Form module if it makes everyone happy) and clarifies things a bit.Also, I'll be trying new templAtes over the next few days. this is because of that dark link color problem which I can't seem to fix.

Edited March 15, 2006 by michaelper22 (see edit history)

[itssami 0]

Hey !! I checked ur website , it is very nice , especially the color combnation and the navigation bar style is very nice...is it pre-made theme or u created by urself ??

[michaelper22 0]

Thanks itssami. I used tthe template Grassfields Forever by Tim-online for Mambo, slightly modified. I think I got it right this time. With this template, the background for the text is always white.

Edited March 15, 2006 by michaelper22 (see edit history)