LocoForum,Com

[Brandon]

first off let me tell you somethings here..

I've had my site looking like it was for about 4 months,, if u search google cache you'll see it,, white and orange,, i think it was nice but when it came to showing my clients,, well, lets just say they didn't care for it..

So basically I've scraped my old board, took the DB and started a new site from scratch.. I've been working on this since last Monday morning.. so about 3 1/2 days ATM of work..

here it is,, I think we'll change the banner and add a HTML front page, but this will be the heart of the site.

I still have some tweaking to do, and am waiting on a few things to happen.. but I plan to have it wrapped up again by the end of the month..

http://locoforum.com
is this site,, one part that has blown up is the Loco Thread Games (http://locoforum.com/thread-games/) :noevil:

please let me know what you like, and dislike.. I've tried to make this as friendly to Search engines as possible.

-Brandon

[Scott]

That's not too bad, certainly got interesting colours there. Just a few points I'll bring up, first is the black background. I'm not a fan, and I know a lot of people aren't. If you can lighten that in any way, but still keeping the colours contrasting, I think it might look better.

I'm not too sure if the banner fits the skin very well, I know you said you'll probably change it, but I think you definatly should.

Also, the fixed width does leave a lot of empty space. I know it works for some sites, but I'm not too sure that it does yours much justice. At the end of the day, this is up to you.

One final point regarding search engines, well validated pages are often easier for spiders to index therefore can rank higher. I know validating a forum index page sounds like pain on earth, but it is possible.

Good luck :)

[Brandon]

changing the background huh.. maybe a dark grey ? or are you thinking a lighter color..

the banner we will defiantly change to blend in with the background, but it will have the same kind of setup.

how do i validate a site ?

thank you for the review.. oh about the fixed width, would u go with ad's ? or more content. or just stretch it.. I just need things to be very simple, fast, and fun :p

thx again Scott,
-Brandon

[Scott]

A dark grey could work, but I would also look at how white would look. It's all about trying it and seeing which looks best in your opinion.

The w3c has a validator (http://validator.w3.org/) which you can use. Valid sites tend to be displayed properly in most browsers. Be warned, validating a forum index page can take a while and cause several nightmares.

I would just stretch the size of the forum although it often looks good if you leave a small margin either side. In the end, it's entirely up to you :)

[Brandon]

I was thinking more about this background image.. Maybe I can get some art from the client,, see there current site here www.locomacheen.com and have the background have a lighten image of some art.. not sure if it would be to busy tho

thx for the w3 link, I'll definitely check this out