Input Appreciated on TheCriticalPost.com

[Brad|E]

Hello Everyone,

I would appreciate any advice/input on The Critical Post. The home page is rather undeveloped but it is essentially just a launching point for the main components: the forum and the blog. (At a minimum, I'm thinking of adding news feeds to the area where domains are listed--recommendations on services (SimplePie?) would be appreciated.) I'm especially concerned about the forum and ways it may be improved (additions, subtractions, etc.) to become a thriving community.

Thanks in advance,
be9999

 

[Mike]

While i like most of the lay out of the sites, and especially the newspaper style logo, the one thing i definitely disagree with is the listing of available domains. if you want to sell them, put them in a category. the way you're presenting them now, is distracting from the original purpose of thecriticalpost. if your objective is to sell the domains, state so and let users browse them upon their choosing. offer a more enticing reason to click the forum button, right now i don't see any reason to click on it, other than evaluating the site. to get users and keep them coming back you'll need to offer something on your site that most other sites don't offer, think about what that would be in your terms.

The visual layout is quite ok, simple cut, straight forward - personally, i like it. If you add the components of enticement to it, and hide the obvious attempt to sell your domains a bit more clever, the site would actually really be something i'd consider bookmarking.

 

[shockie]

good choice of font. the whole post/newspaper theme is nice, and goes well with the "blog" idea too. seeing as you're trying to make it like a portal page, i'd suggest taking out that long list of domains, because it is making your page three times as long as it needs to be. what you could do is just feature a handful of available domains, with the last link in the list being a "click here to see more available domains" or something.

the logo/banner at the top of the portal page needs to have a lighter shadow/outline to stand out against the dark blue, or you could also try to make it bigger like in the forum. either way you should make it stand out more.

good luck!!

 

[Brad|E]

Thank you both for the excellent input. Re the available domains, this will definitely be modified, if not removed altogether. I like the idea of a category button below the others on the left--but again, as the purpose of the site is not to sell domains, I will likely scrap this altogether. My original plan was to feature top news stories related to the themes of the site in the "available domains" column. My main concerns now, given the site's infancy, are 1)layout 2)color scheme 3)logos and, in general, 4) the appearance and content of the forum, as I hope this will become the site's main feature.

Note: this is my first attempt at building a site.

Thanks again,
be9999

 

[Brad|E]

Advice taken: domains removed. I would like to fill that area with news feeds, so if anyone can recommend a service I would certainly appreciate it.

Rep points added to both.

Thanks,
be9999