Inkify - review request

[Mark]

Inkify.com (http://www.inkify.com) is a website and forum for fiction writers and poets. I'd be interested in knowing what you all have to say about it.

Highlights:

The main page (http://www.inkify.com/forums/view_homepage_news.html)
The forums index (http://www.inkify.com/forums/)
User profile page (http://www.inkify.com/forums/member.php?u=1)I do not want comments on:

The layout of the "Articles" and "Book Reviews" sections. I'm already working on a new style for them, so anything you have to say about the current version would be mostly useless.Keep in mind that this is a newly opened site and I'm still making improvements. With that said, I'd love to hear all the honest, constructive criticism you can give me. :)

[writespeak]

Inkify.com (http://www.inkify.com) is a website and forum for fiction writers and poets.

My first suggestion is to state that at the site. :) I was able to guess that from the names of the forums, but it always helps to help visitors see what a site (not just a forum) is about within the first few seconds. :idea2:

(A few minutes later) Ah, now I see "The community for novelists and booklovers" at the top of the page. But I didn't see until I'd done a lot of looking, and your forum is also for writers of short fiction and poetry.

I love the design, especially the colours and the titles. It's very pleasing aesthetically. :)

The exclamation mark after "You are not logged in" was a bit much to me. I felt like I was being shouted at before I'd even had a chance to look around and that perhaps I wasn't welcome because I wasn't logged in. :(

For the Forum page, here are some organization suggestions:

- Move Feedback and Suggestions to The Inkpot.
- (Maybe later) Move Publishers, Agents, and Printers into a section about the business of writing. It didn't quite fit under Writing for me, but you don't want too many sections when you're starting out.
- Short Stories and Poetry also felt out of place. Maybe it would work better in Reading? Or did I misunderstand its purpose?

A question: where would people discuss such things as character development, point of view, tone, and so on?

I really like your Profile page. That's a highlight, all right. Just a small point -- it has a horizontal scrollbar at 800X600 while the other pages don't.

Do you have permission to reproduce the articles that you list as "offsite" but which are published at your site? I recommend including "Reproduced with permission," especially at a site where participants are concerned about copyright.

I haven't written fiction or poetry in years, but I'm still interested in it, so I just joined. :) I don't know how active I'll be, though.

Note a typo under Interests on the profile page: "Other than books and writing, what are your hobbies/interestes/etc"

I think you've made a great start.

Lois

[Mark]

(A few minutes later) Ah, now I see "The community for novelists and booklovers" at the top of the page. But I didn't see until I'd done a lot of looking, and your forum is also for writers of short fiction and poetry.

Err, yeah, I guess I should fix that. See, the site started out as a place for novelists. Short story and poetry was added as an afterthought, and I never went back to change that title text. Do you have any suggestions for where to put the site's topic/short description?

The exclamation mark after "You are not logged in" was a bit much to me. I felt like I was being shouted at before I'd even had a chance to look around and that perhaps I wasn't welcome because I wasn't logged in.
I'm going to look at those headers again, then, maybe reword them and make them a bit smaller and less obtrusive. I think I put the exclamation mark on it somewhat automatically because I felt like a lot of computer error/information messages on operating systems do the same. Is that really the case? I have no idea.

For the Forum page, here are some organization suggestions:
- Move Feedback and Suggestions to The Inkpot.
That makes sense.

- (Maybe later) Move Publishers, Agents, and Printers into a section about the business of writing. It didn't quite fit under Writing for me, but you don't want too many sections when you're starting out.

The idea was that there was one forum for news/announcements/etc, one forum for reading, one for writing, one for miscellaneous. Out of those, it seemed to fit in Writing the best. But as you said, once the forum's been going a while it's something to consider.

- Short Stories and Poetry also felt out of place. Maybe it would work better in Reading? Or did I misunderstand its purpose?

The purpose that I thought of when created was discussing the writing of short stories of poetry. But that brings up a point that there's not really anywhere to discuss other people's short stories and poetry. And now that I think about it, the other writing-related forums could apply to all fiction, not just novels.

A question: where would people discuss such things as character development, point of view, tone, and so on?

I was thinking character development would go in pre-writing, but maybe that doesn't make sense, since people don't always make characters before they start. When I was first creating the forum, the way all the boards were orginized seemed to make sense, but I'm starting to see the flaws. Maybe I should redo them? I don't know what I would replace them with, though, since as you said I want as few forums as possible. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

I really like your Profile page. That's a highlight, all right. Just a small point -- it has a horizontal scrollbar at 800X600 while the other pages don't.

Thanks :) I noticed the problem with not fitting in 800x600 properly when I made it, but went on to totally forget about it. I think it has to do with the comments box, I'll work on fixing it.

Do you have permission to reproduce the articles that you list as "offsite" but which are published at your site? I recommend including "Reproduced with permission," especially at a site where participants are concerned about copyright.

They're from a couple of the article sites that allow you to copy-and-paste if you leave the author credit in, but good idea with the "Reproduced with permission" text, I think I'll do that. (I hope the article quality wasn't too bad - I had originally intended to write them myself, or use member submissions, but I wanted to populate the section a little to get it started and that seemed like a good way to do it).

Anyhow, thanks for the exceedingly helpful comments on the site. You pointed out a lot of things I hadn't even thought of.

[writespeak]

Do you have any suggestions for where to put the site's topic/short description?

Below the title?

I was thinking character development would go in pre-writing, but maybe that doesn't make sense, since people don't always make characters before they start. When I was first creating the forum, the way all the boards were orginized seemed to make sense, but I'm starting to see the flaws. Maybe I should redo them? I don't know what I would replace them with, though, since as you said I want as few forums as possible. If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

I don't have specific suggestions, but after thinking about it more, the types of things I mentioned could go in "Beginnings, Middles, and Ends" or "Critiques."

For ideas on possible topics, I suggest looking in on other fiction/poetry forums (including egroups) to see what's being discussed. The topic that comes to mind now is to have more on the business of writing, getting published, copyright/legal issues, and so on.

BTW, "Critiques" appears as an empty forum when you aren't logged in, but when you are logged in but don't have enough posts and days of membership, it doesn't appear at all. Members with 25 or fewer posts could forget that it exists. :(

Anyhow, thanks for the exceedingly helpful comments on the site. You pointed out a lot of things I hadn't even thought of.

You're welcome. :)

Lois

[SoftWareRevue]

. . . I love the design, especially the colours and the titles. It's very pleasing aesthetically. . .Sorry. But that wasn't my impression.

Although writing on white background doesn't bother me, reading on it does. Even it it's toned down just a little would help people like me. But, between the font and the background, I couldn't read much. I'd be happy with just a shade. #FAFAFA, for example.

I do hope you're planning on getting some buttons that go with your design. If I missed where you mentioned that, I appologize. But it really throws everything off the way it is.

Speaking of being thrown off; I find the yellow background in the background more annoying than it is attention getting.

The main reason I registered was to get rid of it.

Surprise! It's still there. :D

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I use the same hack here. I'd just suggest you make it less obtrusive.

I'd suggest aligning the navbar to the left. I'm not sure if you're trying to be different with it being centered. But, it just seems out of place like that.

I think you have a great start on it. And, with some slight tweaking, it could be greater. :yippee:

I'll poke around more when I'm not squirrel setting.

[writespeak]

Sorry. But that wasn't my impression.

Although writing on white background doesn't bother me, reading on it does. Even it it's toned down just a little would help people like me. But, between the font and the background, I couldn't read much. I'd be happy with just a shade. #FAFAFA, for example.

Interesting. My overall impression of the site appearance was so good that I didn't notice the white. Then again, I don't remember reading threads, just the forum titles and such things.

I have a problem with light sensitivity, and the glare of all-white backgrounds is enough to give me an instant headache. The white is only part of the background, so I didn't notice it. But I agree that it would be better with a shade that's easier on the eyes.

I do hope you're planning on getting some buttons that go with your design. If I missed where you mentioned that, I appologize. But it really throws everything off the way it is.

Where? I see buttons. :confused:

Speaking of being thrown off; I find the yellow background in the background more annoying than it is attention getting.

I agree with that.

I'd suggest aligning the navbar to the left. I'm not sure if you're trying to be different with it being centered. But, it just seems out of place like that.

It sounds like the page looks quite different at different resolutions. At 800X600, it takes up the screen width.

Lois

[SoftWareRevue]

. . . Where? I see buttons. . .The operative words were, "that go with your design." :P

/me takes some writing courses.

[writespeak]

The operative words were, "that go with your design." :P

Oops. Trying to read fast has its drawbacks. :blush:

Lois

[Mark]

I've made a few changes:


Profile page typo corrected
Small site description added under logo
Edited the "You are not logged in" message slightly, and toned down the yellow background.
Moved "Feedback and Suggestions" to "The Inkpot"
Replaced the blue buttons with some temporary ones from vbulletin.org, until I have the time and inspiration to make some of my own.
Changed "Critiques" forum permissions so unregistered users can't see it, and new members can see that it exists but not view threads.
Changed First Alternating Color to #FAFAFA
New layout for Article and Book Review pages
And I'm still working on editing the profile comments system so it doesn't push the profile page past what can be viewed in 800x600 without a scroll-bar, it's a bit harder than I thought.

If either of you or anyone else has further comments, I'd love to hear them :)

[SoftWareRevue]

. . .

If either of you or anyone else has further comments, I'd love to hear them :)That's better. :)

Nothing further to add right now. It's just nice to see someone take suggestions to heart. :agree:

Them new buttons are hot! :luv:

I still ain't a fan of black on white. But, maybe that's just me. At least you toned it down a bit. :greenthum

[writespeak]

I've made a few changes

I agree that it looks better now. :)

Small site description added under logo

That's easier to find. Since you also have discussion on poetry, you might want to include poets in the description too. Also, while alt tags don't play a big role in SEO, they help a little, and they also help visually impaired visitors. Adding the description in an image alt tag could be helpful.

Changed "Critiques" forum permissions so unregistered users can't see it, and new members can see that it exists but not view threads.

If unregistered users can also see that it exists, they'll have more reason to register. :)

Lois

[Mark]

Them new buttons are hot! :luv:

:D

I still ain't a fan of black on white. But, maybe that's just me. At least you toned it down a bit. :greenthum
Black on white seems appropriate for my forum, since it's about books and writing. I suppose something like the light browns on this site would also work, but white was the first thing I thought of, and another writing site that I frequently post at uses a white background.

I also only consider myself acceptably good at designing, so it wouldn't be all that easy to switch to something completely new and make it look good. (I really don't want to buy a design from a vbulletin skin site... I wouldn't want there to be other sites that would look exactly the same as mine).

Since you also have discussion on poetry, you might want to include poets in the description too.
I guess I could try to fit it in. The reason I didn't do it yet is that I couldn't figure out a way without making the logo image even higher, which wouldn't be good because it directly effects the height of my header.

Also, while alt tags don't play a big role in SEO, they help a little, and they also help visually impaired visitors. Adding the description in an image alt tag could be helpful.
Good idea.