Hi there,
I created a music community over a year ago and its slowly going well - despite not getting many visitors, i have continued to keep it going and i have some very loyal members who post regularly.

I keep trying to improve it and make it userfriendly but do you know that way where you look at something and feel that something else can be changed to make it better, im going through that and i look at the forum and feel that there is something missing but i cant think

can anyone suggest some improvements which might help make it look and feel a bit better.

www.alterchatter.com

hmm, actually for a forum site i think it looks pretty good.

The CD with a flame graphics are awful as they are supposed to be on a white background - you need the same graphic rendered to black to make it look good.

i know, i need to find some good icons for the site for the black background, i will have a check today and see if i can find any good ones.

thanks

I like the colors. For what you're trying to do it seems to work. But, it does come across as a very simple forum and nothing more. Maybe think about some addon functionality for additional enhancement.

There are a lot of mods which are installed on the forum to make it better and easier for members. i have a photo album etc for the site but im currently upgrading them right now and the download section just needs the items added to them again.

i just didnt want to go with the generic red/black or blue/black "rock" colours forums thought orange would make a refreshing change

Hi there MetalCherry!

Perhaps you could also brush up on your marketing and promotion to get more members in. Here is a checklist for your reference.

Free methods:
Submission to SE's and directories
Email campaign
Forums, blogs and board postings to targetted audience
Social Bookmarking
Etc. etc.
Premium ways: (Should require a budget)
Pay-Per-Click (PPC)
Targetted Link backs
Professional SEO services
Ad spaces
Offline campaigns
Etc. etc.

Just always keep in mind that patience is a virtue in our industry. Hope my suggestions help out.

Goodluck!

your a star mrcat thank you so much, i will be working on it straight away, no matter what i have tried, i cant seem to get people to join, i have myspaces, bebos, flyers etc etc and nothing works

just compare this website and yours! which do you like better? I like this one more because of the colours. yours is dark, mysterious and dangerous.

so whenever, there are 2 websites with nearly the same outlay wins the one with better fonts, colours, and attitude to life!

looks pretty good

lol i know what you mean jenn - i do have light themes for the members to choose from as well, i know some people like light themes more than dark so they have a choice how they would like to view the site.

i have managed to update the folder icons like what Mr tom_uk said and looks so much better.

at the moment i am just adding some new items to the site and updating some old.

just need to get more promotion and marketing for the site
i use all the free search engines, just a month or two ago i went through a list of 500 different search engines which italk posted up and submitted it to everysingle one of them.
I also have 2 myspaces for the different domains (it also goes under alternativesounds.co.uk) and a bebo account for the site - all of which are active and i run regular competitions to win cds and dvds.

hopefully with all this different advise the site will hopefully start looking better

but please don't overwork. don't add too much new items. and you know what, when i enter your site i feel locked, i mean there is polenty of space for content, but i've got the feeling that it's not used in a rational way.

if you would like, have a look at www.usflashmap.com and post your replies as for this website. probably you would like to take something from it as well.

Looks GOod