griffinsbridge wrote:

Come on, what IS the story with the tortoise?
Whats his name? what does he represent?

It let's us know that we can read the Forum very s-l-o-w-l-y...

He reminds me of an old children’s cartoon character called tooter turtle. Hawaiian shirt Fridays… we have shirts with turtles.

it could be a paradox of how "slowly" the information technology and the web progress.

is it a tortoise or a turtle?

they're both slow on land, both live for ever

but at least a turtle is elegant and fast in water, eating jellyfish

WOOT!! Site review, for Site-Reference.com -

How nasty can I be before I lose my log-in rights?? hahahah

K, here we go -

The green sucks. I have two kids, and that color reminds me of some diapers I've changed. Find a new color.

The turtle? Meh.... I dunno. I think what most people here are REALLY feeling is that a 'turtle' for a site mascot is ok.. but THAT turtle isn't. I would continue working on a better turtle. Also... is that where the putrid green comes from? Trying to match the turtle? Ack seriously suggest sitting down with another plan of attack if thats the case.

Your content arrangement looks like it was a last ditch effort, cause you couldn't figure out anything else. The newsletter box just hanging out by itself looks out of place. Then, the article section looks like it's combined with the forum links section. At first glance, it's confusing. What the heck is the main purpose of the site? I really think you need to sit down with proper segmentation of the key components you want to feature.

And yes, it looks kinda like a blog, instead of an actual site, with the exception of the header.

Moving on to articles -

They're all terrible. hahahha J/K.

Anyways, the layout is good, things seem to flow ('cept for that darn green color). Was curious about your expected CTR on those ad's tho. Wouldn't the CTR go up if the ad was a little more closer to center on-screen? (not that I would know). Perhaps switching the position of the newsletter box with the article. This way the adsense comes closer to the middle.

Also, if those 'Digg' type tools over there are for trying to help increase ranking via some weird social marketing campaign, wouldn't they be better served if they were physically IN the article, like at the bottom where the voting is? Again, I don't know anything about that medium either.

Should you put no-follow tags on those 'Digg' type links, or does it even matter?

Why are there no-follow tags on the home page for the forum links? Not that I care, was just asking what the reasoning is...

Looking at the bottom of the home page, I see you have some nifty tools for webmasters. Why are you hiding these? Wouldn't you want these to be more prominent?

Finally, I'm curious about the nav menu. Very odd. We have five items in a row here -
Home - Submit an Article - Syndicate our Articles - Advertise with Us - Visit our forums

Looking at this, I can't tell if your site is targeting webmasters looking for resources to USE (your site) to benefit only themselves, or if you're trying to target end users, who are looking for resources, period. At first glance, it looks like a place where I would want to drop off an SEO article, and then never come back, simply because there is nothing else here to offer. This may be where the tools come into play. Either way, the nav makes the site look like this place is strictly designed to make money for the owners, instead of helping people with their webmaster needs.

So.. uh.... can I still have my membership?

waveshoppe wrote:

He reminds me of an old children’s cartoon character called tooter turtle. Hawaiian shirt Fridays… we have shirts with turtles.

I thought you'd appreciate the idea.

Anyway, now that I'm using the new layout in my usual way -- just had some cereal and read about LSI -- I've noticed something else that has disappointed me. I like clicking the author's link to see what else they've written, and, sometimes, to see how well their articles have been received. (I don't necessarily accept others' opinions on the authors ever since I discovered an article about creating articles by Mark D. that deserved a 5, but only got a 3.X, but they do give me a chance to puruse through other articles the author has written to decide if I should trust the current one or not.) No authors' links?! Boooo!

Oh and, yes, I still like the tortoise (I'm going with tortoise, Northie, because water-loving turtles tend to be more streamlined then this fellow is, although, since there aren't any purple shelled variety in either family, I don't think they were going for scientific styling) even with his bright green and psychedelic purple shell.

Thank you all for taking the time to share your honest opinions- always good to know how you all feel because after all you are the audience and the site is for you (except for you TA...hehe,JK)

Mob, Northie, Matte, Stitch and without backtracking anyone else that mentioned any programming or functionality issues – that’s very appreciated as it was what I really wanted to know at this stage…have them all noted down and plugging away on fixing them….

I’ll try to answer a few of people’s comments here though not all as A) a lot have to do with personal taste and B) I want to keep myself from falling into the design spiral of death (spending all our time endlessly tweaking everything).

The colors, turtle (or possibly tortoise- this is yet to be determined by our resident SR marine biologist) etc, is designed to give the site a friendlier feel. Although I think the place is super friendly compared to many similar sites you would be shocked by the amount of emails we get from potential members intimidated from joining. Apart from the look there is little we can control so hopefully this will make it more appealing.

Webmaster tools- would like to know if you guys used them often? From what I can tell they were getting very little play but I didn’t want to get rid of them either so I thought if we added them to the bottom people could see them after they finished reading an article

Nav menu- is the exact same as the old one. It has the exact same 6 buttons in the exact same order.

Current orientation of the homepage- sorry stitch but your way off- have another look- all the prime real estate is taken up by “tools” for webmasters (articles and discussions). There is 1 ad total (there were 2 in the old design including all article pages- which are now gone). Not sure you can honestly say many comparable websites have this little advertising on them. The design is simple and easy to navigate. As far as it looking like a blog I can see where people are coming from. However at this stage I will point out that the homepage will remain like this for now as I am working on another interactive area of info for you guys that will take up some room on the homepage so in about 3-4 weeks (if I can meet my own deadlines) I will have to change it anyways.

“At first glance, it looks like a place where I would want to drop off an SEO article, and then never come back, simply because there is nothing else here to offer.” Well if you think about it this has always been an article site and the new design has had no impact on its purpose. The site is designed to give people useful info through the articles which hopefully leads them to want to know more and therefore participate in the forums. I agree with the “nothing else to offer” feeling bit (apart from what i mentioend previously) because at the moment you are mostly right. That’s why I’m going to get back to working on our next addition to SR so we’ll have more to offer for all...bit by bit (just like the turtle) we'll get there… 

atwhatcost wrote:

waveshoppe wrote:

He reminds me of an old children’s cartoon character called tooter turtle. Hawaiian shirt Fridays… we have shirts with turtles.

I thought you'd appreciate the idea.

Anyway, now that I'm using the new layout in my usual way -- just had some cereal and read about LSI -- I've noticed something else that has disappointed me. I like clicking the author's link to see what else they've written, and, sometimes, to see how well their articles have been received. (I don't necessarily accept others' opinions on the authors ever since I discovered an article about creating articles by Mark D. that deserved a 5, but only got a 3.X, but they do give me a chance to puruse through other articles the author has written to decide if I should trust the current one or not.) No authors' links?! Boooo!

Oh and, yes, I still like the tortoise (I'm going with tortoise, Northie, because water-loving turtles tend to be more streamlined then this fellow is, although, since there aren't any purple shelled variety in either family, I don't think they were going for scientific styling) even with his bright green and

psychedelic

purple shell.

Did someone mention psychedelics?

"tools taking up prime realestate (articles and discussions)"

I guess you could call these tools. I would call them databases of information.

Anyway, I'm talking about the 'Keyword Density Checker', and the 'Verify Your Site Links'.

All that is listed at the bottom like foot-notes. Is there a reason for that? I would think you would want them up in the nav area somewhere.

"....because at the moment you are mostly right."

I'm always right! And if people would just listen to me, the world would be a better place!

I'm not so sure I'm getting my point across correctly for the 'dropping off' thing, but I don't know how to word it any other way..... maybe I'll visit with you about that subject at another time.

P.S.
Ditch the green

MrStitch wrote:

P.S.
Ditch the green

I'm liking the green for the text but the green border on the outside of the newsletter box and perhaps the background of the newsletter header could be changed to better colors.

i think the logo on the forums could be made a little larger, there seems to be a big chunk of nothing, if the logo was more prominent i think it'd look better and feel slicker.

the background from that top section on the forums could be made to extend into the logged in / last visit box as that appears out of sync with the header.

colours are a very personal thing, some will like the blue, some will dislike the green. it's taste and other than letting the user set the colours for the stylesheet there's nothing much that can be done about it.

i ran such a test some time back, i know the strong red background on my site was something people either loved or hated so i gave them a series of coloured blocks to click to set the background colour to something they like.

nobody used it.

people can moan but when you give them the chance to do something about it they don't bother and still moan. there are some things that you can't win on.

your favicons need updating by the way!

Tortoise, definately a tortoise.
its got feet on the end of its legs, turtles have flippers.
Confusious say: foot on leg is mark of tortoise.

Im yet to see a turtle typing n a keyboard, but Ive definately seen a tortoise do it (in a photo, about 2 pages back).

And Tools? what tools? Ive been coming here for years and Ive never seen any tools! maybe they do need to be abit more prominent

I'm a little late to the party - but I really like the new layout!  Great Job!

Me too!

ak

The new favicon sucks. Sorry, I'm just telling it as I see it.

I think a new one with the funky green splodges would be better.

I have since removed the "sticky" from the tortise. He's fine.
probably needs a job after the nuclear accident that did that to him...

The "funky green splodges" have the potential of conforming to the shape of a lowercase "r" in both the logo and the favicon. Just a  thought.

hows the new one look?


Now to get it to show in IE &^%@!  

used IcoFox...any ideas (worked last time)

ya still need to lighten up the background - not enough contrast with the black lettering against blue...and it makes the white text boxes look , well boxy. Too much space between the active discussions box and the main content box. detracts from the overall look.

Sometime less is more

Looks good on 1280x1024
The turtles name is sanchez, he is a gay mexican web designer who took acid and lsd to get the colour of his shell to represent his sexuality, on this magical journey he tripped and lost the plot turning him into a lecturer/college professor in web site design and marketing etc. Watch as Sanchez the webxican teaches willing students the way of the web all the the while making friends that will last a life time... on LSD. aint that just the purdiest Walt Disney review ever

I will take autographs late, im here every day

The website turned XP? i was scrolling around and couldnt put my finger on what looked different, it kinda felt like SR, works the same as SR, so what is it that was making me feel like this wasnt Site reference? i didnt know, then i saw this post and sanchez told me what happened. Everyone can take a pot shot but i like it, its a fresh new feel, only downside is it does look kinda like a giant ipod with the apple version of win xp on  it (no there really isnt one but if there was this is what it would look like).

But Sanchez and i will get over it and learn to live in harmony