Website Review and Suggestions

**dent** · 02:19 AM

Hello all

I have made a new site for users and lovers of the filesharing program DC++

http://www.dcforge.com

Its made in Joomla, excellent content manager by my opinion.
As you will see its full of small flash movies, modules and other features, mostly because I have used it for experiments and test, w00t!!!
I know its very busy and that some parts are even completely different templates etc, but it has been my intention to use the site to learn and study joomla and webdesign in general.
Check out the forum, I just finished it. Looks pretty fresh, little too busy but Im just finding out how to add affiliates etc lol

He he I would be happy if you gave me your opinion and any ideas on how to optimize the site.

What do you like, what dont you like?

Is there anything you like in particular?

Thx for all your answers

Dent

**travelagent** · 04-02-2007, 02:11 AM

To be honest with you, I don't like your site for the following reasons:

1. DCFORGE doesn't accurately describe your site - very misleading; DC typically means Direct Current (electrical).

2. I don't like sites with flashing text; flashing banners; rotating images; etc -- makes it look gawdy and cheap ... gives me the impression you don't know what you're doing.

3. Drop the Firefox crap in the right column - if your site isn't properly viewable in any other browser, then you need to learn alot more about web design.

4. Lastly; you should fix the following 37 code warnings:

Code:

line 1 column 44 - Warning: discarding unexpected XML declaration
line 38 column 1 - Warning: <param> attribute "quality'" lacks value
line 38 column 1 - Warning: <param> dropping value "modules/mod_DigitalClock/mod_DigitalClock.swf?/> <param name=" for repeated attribute "value"
line 42 column 1 - Warning: <embed> attribute "high'" lacks value
line 42 column 1 - Warning: <embed> is not approved by W3C
line 92 column 56 - Warning: unescaped & or unknown entity "&node"
line 92 column 69 - Warning: unescaped & or unknown entity "&tag"
line 92 column 85 - Warning: unescaped & or unknown entity "&linkCode"
line 92 column 98 - Warning: unescaped & or unknown entity "&camp"
line 92 column 108 - Warning: unescaped & or unknown entity "&creative"
line 103 column 9 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 104 column 73 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 104 column 158 - Warning: <br> element not empty or not closed
line 290 column 11 - Warning: unescaped & which should be written as &amp;
line 297 column 370 - Warning: <embed> is not approved by W3C
line 297 column 948 - Warning: <embed> is not approved by W3C
line 297 column 1526 - Warning: <embed> is not approved by W3C
line 297 column 2104 - Warning: <embed> is not approved by W3C
line 297 column 2781 - Warning: <embed> is not approved by W3C
line 297 column 4013 - Warning: nested emphasis <strong>
line 313 column 3089 - Warning: <embed> is not approved by W3C
line 13 column 1 - Warning: <table> attribute "width" has invalid value "783px"
line 17 column 1 - Warning: <td> attribute "width" has invalid value "6px"
line 17 column 1 - Warning: <td> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 42 column 1 - Warning: <embed> escaping malformed URI reference
line 258 column 2 - Warning: <iframe> proprietary attribute "onload"
line 258 column 2 - Warning: <iframe> attribute "align" has invalid value "top"
line 270 column 3 - Warning: <td> attribute "width" has invalid value "6px"
line 270 column 3 - Warning: <td> attribute "height" has invalid value "6px"
line 297 column 4238 - Warning: <img> proprietary attribute value "texttop"
line 332 column 1 - Warning: <td> attribute "height" has invalid value "6px"
line 335 column 1 - Warning: <td> attribute "colspan" has invalid value "3px"
line 335 column 61 - Warning: <a> attribute "target" has invalid value "_new"
line 340 column 1 - Warning: <td> attribute "height" has invalid value "1px"
line 281 column 1803 - Warning: trimming empty <h1>
line 297 column 4217 - Warning: trimming empty <h2>
line 297 column 4428 - Warning: trimming empty <strong>

**FindMyPages** · 04-02-2007, 02:27 AM

I don't really know what you are trying to do. Bring DC together?

Nice color, but don't like the animation ... I did that 10 years ago.

**dent** · 02:44 AM

I love honesty

Thank you. You are right.

I started to learn webdesign 3 months ago but I wanted objectivity so I didnt mention it but its kind of obvious I guess so...

I know the name is weird but the addy was given to me from a friend to experiment with so what can I say... It fills its purpose having the letters DC in it and forge is always nice... :P

As I mentioned its a site that I use to learn and experimet. I myself dont like too much flsh and moving objects either... But its good to know how they work in case one day you need to implement some and one thing leads to another. I learn.

Im also making this "test" site for a customer (!) to show as sample of how his site could look-> http://muestra.sinsemillacalpe.com
(I live in spain so the site is ment to be mainly in spanish but I added english as an option but needs to be worked on to be complete)
You might wanna take a look at it and say if you think Im improving or if I still go for too much moving stuff.

Back to dcforge..
I removed the "mozilla" text off course, it really sucked and was there because the first template I used wasnt compatible with explorer.

Im not trying to bring DC together, Im trying to learn about webdesign and at the same time provide a service I have been looking for myself as a dc++ user.
I had over 1000 visitors first month and am pretty surprised.

Thank you so much for your reviews and keep going please

**topboy** · 04-02-2007, 06:35 AM

you should remove the flashy stuff and put some content explaining what your website is about in my opinion.

the design is a bit bland to me, but good use of colours

**enicola** · 04-02-2007, 12:36 PM

Way too much movement with the animation, keep animation down to just 1 or 2 things and make sure it's quality animation that's eye catching. Good Luck!

**dent** · 04-02-2007, 08:09 PM

Thank you for your great opinions

The front page is dynamic, normally not that much movement going on.

I was testing the program Xara to see if it could create some nice animations but I think the movement make them look cheap so Im remaking it.

Will probably add an explanation abut what dc++ is to start with.

This is really my test project and I love fiddeling with the site so it has many animatins, ad's and other stuff, mostly due to me experimenting with some new prog or tool :P

I think the forum turned out, completely different, but good.
Please check it out and tell me what you think

http://www.dcforge.com/index.php?opt...oard&Itemid=71

thx again

dent

**ADAM Web Design** · 04-02-2007, 10:13 PM

I gotta agree with everyone's comments up above. The whole thing is way too busy, especially with the poker and Viagra ads (by the way, I'm thinking this is a violation of what you're allowed to link to with WMT...mods?)

The text is also very hard to read. Make it black so that people can actually see it.

As far as your "CMS" is concerned, Joomla is apparently really good for the newcomer, but it comes with a lot of inherent issues (bad code, excessively long URLs, etc.) that will need to be dealt with at some point.

Your forum would look good were it not for the ads blatantly telling me how small my unit is. Go easy on the ads.

**dent** · 04-02-2007, 10:41 PM

thx for your opinion

**dent** · 04-04-2007, 06:34 AM

Hello again!

I have listened to your opinions and made some important changes.

I have cut down on flash and animations
Removed some advertising
Added an explanation of what the site is about and a presentation on the frontpage
Changed colors, text is black etc
Changed symbols in the menu and some others too
Changed the text to a more "button" like style on textlinks on frontpage
Removed ads for painkillers in forum section (:P was testing my abilities as an affiliate)

Maybe something more

Still I need to go over
akll the sections and freshen them up and remove some animations, but I hope Im on my way to a nice site.

Please continue to give me your opinions, as you can see they are of grrreeeaaat help

Thx again
dent