I have decided it's time to do some promotion for my Music Forum. It started out as an extension to my personal website but I really would like to take it further and I am planning on doing a lot of work on it in the coming months (or however long it takes).

But I need some help and advice from the pros
what is your first impression?
...and how do I improve that?...
any suggestions on which subjects to expand upon?
other advice?

thanks in advance for any contructive critisism.

Magle, I think your site looks great. As far as content goes that's really up to you and what you think your users might like. Like any forum, I think the best thing you can do is get the word out to people and let it grow

The site looks very good!
I don´t know if you want to obtain a general look of the site, if, then you should choose a different theme for the board perhaps.

Ive added comics and a bf1942 server and a weather app and still they want more! they are leeches I tell ya.. leeches.. and they need to die!

[]scroungr said:
Ive added comics and a bf1942 server and a weather app and still they want more! they are leeches I tell ya.. leeches.. and they need to die! [/]
Ahhh, another satisfied webmaster.

Hi,

"Ive added comics and a bf1942 server"
Could you tell me what these are? I get the impression from checking your board that the bf1942 is an online game, right?
How about the cartoons, are you drawing those from another server? (Could not find them on your board)

Sanuk!

Well, thanks for the replies!

I'm glad you like the look of it - I did some experimentation trying to get it to match my main site in colors but had some serious problems and then I decided that I actually think it's a good idea to have some difference between the board and my personal website. I'd like the board to be somewhat independent (with exception of the "Frederik Magle's Corner")

Since I have started to be more active myself (the last 14 days) I am starting to see a slight increase in users and posts. I guess that's what I have to do - be more active on the board myself (at least until it has gained momentum)

Still, any ideas on more improvements are welcomed!

As far as content that is up to you. As far as design you might want to ADD A HEADER. do some other html tricks. Right now when I click the board there is just a stock threads board there. I think one of the best things any site can do is give theirsite some character. That might help and give your users a reason to come back. Of course content being number 1 but look feel and features and next.

Nice Job and look forward to seeing ya around the community here.

[]ksanuk said:
Hi,

"Ive added comics and a bf1942 server"
Could you tell me what these are? I get the impression from checking your board that the bf1942 is an online game, right?
How about the cartoons, are you drawing those from another server? (Could not find them on your board)

Sanuk! [/]

Yes BF1942 is an online game where ya fight with friends who each have purchased battlefield 1942 either with them as allies or against them as axis.. its set during WWII.. and the comics is using phpGrabComics you need to be registered to view them

I would look at carrying your colour theme from your home page into your forums.

Perhaps have a smaller copy of the person on your home page, top left hand corner of your forums. Or perhaps have it part in the header, and part as a left navigation (you would need to split the image to achieve this.)

Thanks for all the advice. Yeah, I know I should do some more about the look of the site. Adding a header is probably a good idea and matching my main-forums color scheme also.

For now I have upgraded to ubbthreads 6.4 and added Josh's search engine modification and I'm already listed high on google! try to search for International Music Forum and see what comes up on top

I will also try to write as many posts as possible myself (though unfortunately my time is not unlimited) and I must also admit that with regards to webdesign I'm not much of a master...

update:

Since last, I have seen some progress, not earth-shattering but still noticeable. Unforunately (for the forum) I'm in the middle of a big and time-consuming job right now, but when that is done, I will be looking in to some design changes (color mathcing with my website, header etc.)...might have to post in the "Developer for Hire" forum about that...

• In order to promote my forum in an easier way, I bought the domain: http://www.mimf.dk for it.
• On the forum I spiced up the title system to give an additional incitement to post more.
• Since adding Josh's search engine mod I have seen a significant increase in traffic
• After fixing my problem with ip-addresses, generally my forum seems more "populated" - that can't be bad (until a few days ago max one anonymous user was shown in the online list because the forum could only see the same ip-address for all users).
• I will post some longer interesting (hopefully ) "articles" when I get a little more time (by end of march)

Now, this is all good. Even though the forum was created 1 1/2 years ago, I have to admit that I almost completely neclegted it for the first year and actually only started really doing something about it around the time when I made this thread here...

However, I still need to figure out that special "thing" that will set the forum apart from all the many other music forums. As I said, originally it started out simply as an extension to my personal website and I guess most (if not all) of my users have joined because of some interest in my music, but I would really like the forum to grow and live it's own life without being too centric around and dependent on my person. That's the hard part.

So, I will be thinking very hard about what to focus on (besides my own music) in order to expand and attract interest. Any bright ideas and suggestions are still very much appreciated

Well, I jumped right in and have posted a request for creating a custom stylesheet in the "Developer's for Hire" section. link

Now, I'll see what happens...

The new design is ready now!

looks great man.

I agree, that theme is fantastic! Did Lane do that for you? Honestly, that has to be the coolest design for threads that I have ever seen.

Wow nice Really Classy I really like what ya did!

Thanks! Yeah, Lane did this great stylesheet! It's designed to complement my main site (which is done by Pollux Chung) and uses the same header (though modified), but as you can see, the stylesheet is at the same time completely original, and that's the mark of an artist!

I'm glad you like it!

That is a cool design, but I can only view it in IE. When I go to that site using Mozilla Firefox 0.8 it displays as if there is no stylesheet.

yeah, funny...it doesn't show in neither firefox 0.8 nor Mozilla 1.6
but works perfectly in Safari, IE and Omniweb (Mac)...

hmmm... no idea why

same here...

it works perfectly in Opera too....

Conclusion: Mozilla browsers sucks!



nah...I just don't have any idea why this happens...

That is really weird... It works fine in mozilla and firefox on one of my computers, but the other one it's like there is no stylesheet. But when I view the source it does have the stylesheet line. I've never seen this happen before.

Okay, now I can view using Firefox with no problems.