A Lot Of Stuff You should change.

[wrathness]

To Start, the general appearance of the site is a bit bland as well as confusing. You have the default text set too close to the scheme of the forum. The next thing is the heading banner which is just a screen shot of the transformice logo. Since this is a forum, you may want to find someone who is good in graphics to make a banner that has something to do with this being a forum as well as a sharper, better quality image.

The next thing is the fact that you are a little too strict with your rules. This is a new forum and you have to allow some things in order to let it flourish. You have things like the Role Playing, Story Telling, ect. That sort of encourage spam. This site in general doesn't make the new comers feel welcome which results in them not wanting to come back. A lot more i could go with but i think ill go eat dinner now. I'm not trying to be mean in any sort of way but I've run forums before and this is the sort of thing that will die if not modified.

[Espy]

We're still under construction as we've mentioned in some threads. We'll definitely work on some of this.
Roleplaying and Story things have to stay for now. I don't think we'd like to go through the trouble of re-adding them. Those rules are needed - I've seen some forums go through mad chaos without that stuff. I personally don't think it's that strict - after all, we allow some swearing and stuff like that.

I think Raven is working on a new skin that won't look as bland. Don't worry about that. To me, it's not as confusing.. it looks like any kind of forum thing to me. I guess that's because I'm on quite a few with this kind of setting, though, so I suppose I'm used to it.

Hmm, yes, I think we need a new logo too. I'm no graphic designer, though, so I can't assure you we'll get a new one. I think someone will probably do something like that too. You know - if you're good at graphics, you could submit a banner! That could help get some ideas flowing. If not, it's really helpful if we get suggestions for that so we know what people want.

Thanks for your suggestions! We appreciate it. ^^ Some other staff will notice this soon, so you won't only get me answering.

[Ravenwing]

Thanks for your suggestions!

As Espy pointed out, this forum is still under construction.

I agree with you that the skin stinks. That's partially because I just threw it together quickly. Don't worry, though. I'm working on a new one.

As for the banner, I'm creating one. It's on my computer at home, though. I'm typing from a phone right now (this is taking forever to type! XD) so I can't complete it until I ge home and have enough time to open up Photoshop and stuff. So for now, I'm stuck with the lame screenshot. Lol.

The rules aren't strict; they're just explained in detail. I know Transformice has no rules at all, but a forum without some good rules is complete and utter chaos.

For now, stories and roleplaying will be staying. Who doesn't love a good roleplay every once in a while? Stories and roleplays are far from spam.

As I said before, this site is still under construction. I know it doesn't look very inviting at the moment, but a good forum isn't just content. It's also how nice the members and the community are. Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions! We'll try our best to keep this forum nice while we work on it. ;3

..I hate typing long-ish posts on a phone. D:

[mruuh]

Please, pretty please, make the new skin a top priority. Current one burns through my eyes - too much purple!

[Zsadist 'Z']

I personally like the rules - having my own forums and having had problems with trolls and spammers and other like minded people in the past - they're necessary.

And I personally think that the role playing and storytelling should stay. It gives the site a fun edge that many discussion and similar boards don't have. It's not that hard to monitor to keep spam and whatnot out - especially if you have a fairly large staff team, which this board does.

Though I agree the skin is a bit... eh.

I didn't see any trouble with feeling welcome here though. =3

[Ravenwing]

Moderation was my top priority besides creating the banner, but since you all insist, I will make the skin instead.

What color scheme would you guys like for the main skin? Blue?

[Middy]

I love the skin I don't think it should be changed

[Ravenwing]

Maybe we could have this as a secondary skin, then. We could keep it and add a new one.

[Espy]

I think that would work. I kind of like this skin. It's different [in a good way].

The new main skin should be nice and easy on the eyes. I think the current one could be hard on some people's eyes. So maybe a sky-blue or something could work.

[Ravenwing]

I've made a sky-blue one before-- do you think the one from TPP would work, Espy?

[Espy]

It's a bit bright - maybe the blue on the default skin's banner? The TPP banner is what I mean in case I confused you.

[Ravenwing]

Ah, that blue. I don't think it's a web color, unfortunately. I can only use web colors for this.

[Espy]

Oh. D=
So do you only have that blue and normal blue?

[Ravenwing]

I have quite a few shades of blue, but I'm not sure if they'll work. Let me go see.

[Zsadist 'Z']

I do like the skin here, but I have eyesight that doesn't always lend itself to me [it hates me after long days with school] and so the purples can be hard to read.

If you ever need a good hex site for colors I've a good couple ... I do graphics for my own sites and skin my own boards and it came in handy when I couldn't get things to look right otherwise.

A question - what made you guys choose proboards over say Zeta or Invisionfree or the like? Just curious, since I see a lot of forum hosts out there - I've tried most of 'em too. At least you guys weren't on the ill fated IPBFree that just went under... [they lost thousands of boards]...