Website Review and Suggestions

**TWD** · 08-11-2011, 09:22 PM

Bonsai Connections is a site for people who want to learn
about bonsai, connect with others, find books and bonsai tools etc.

Comments and suggestions please:

http://www.bonsai-connections.com/

**fresh-d** · 08-11-2011, 10:42 PM

only thing i didn't like was the background. it's low quality and doesn't cover my whole screen

**TWD** · 08-12-2011, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fresh-d

only thing i didn't like was the background. it's low quality and doesn't cover my whole screen

Thanks. What screen size resolution do you have?

**NullPointer** · 08-12-2011, 05:11 AM

I'm using 1920x1080 and there are a few inches of empty space between the background and the right side of my screen.

I'm not a fan of using pictures as backgrounds in general. They just seem distracting to me. I think you'd be better off with a solid color. I looked at the site with your current background color (#f4f5f0), but without the image and it looked much cleaner.

**SiberForum** · 08-17-2011, 12:47 PM

It looks more like a blog than like social network, however, the blog is made well.

**neox212** · 08-21-2011, 03:02 PM

For a better conversion i would use a high-quality image for the background. The current blur one, doesn't look very appealing.

**flexdesigns** · 08-26-2011, 03:28 PM

i too dont like the background image, and also when i click the 'dim lights' it opened up another video on top of the video that was already playing but i just expected the page around the media to darken

**Shey** · 08-26-2011, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TWD

Bonsai Connections is a site for people who want to learn
about bonsai, connect with others, find books and bonsai tools etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SiberForum

It looks more like a blog than like social network,

I too thought it's a blog. Looking at TWD and SiberForum's posts, I had to double check and according to the website, it is a social networking site.

My suggestion is to make it look more like a social network site. The background appears dull for a social network site.

And where are the member profiles? Shouldn't social networking sites have these? Member directory? It would be so much better if it's easier to find things in there.

Although there are videos, it doesn't look dynamic enough..maybe provide more apps or use Opensocial?

I hope the owner finds useful information and suggestions like what this one and this one provide.

**TWD** · 08-27-2011, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shey

I too thought it's a blog. Looking at TWD and SiberForum's posts, I had to double check and according to the website, it is a social networking site.

My suggestion is to make it look more like a social network site. The background appears dull for a social network site.

And where are the member profiles? Shouldn't social networking sites have these? Member directory? It would be so much better if it's easier to find things in there.

Although there are videos, it doesn't look dynamic enough..maybe provide more apps or use Opensocial?

I hope the owner finds useful information and suggestions like what this one and this one provide.

Thanks for the suggestions.
I will look at those links.

We have a forum but not any members yet, as the site was only just launched. More "social networking" functionality will come later.

The first priority as I see it is to make it a site actually worth visiting, which means having some worthwhile content in the eyes of the target market. So video tutorials, books, toolkit promotions are where its at now.