http://www.viperalley.com/ubbthreads.php?Cat=

I'm playing around with integrating the forums, PhotoPost and ReviewPost into one list of forums. I'm debating about putting the featured photos on the top of the forums, but havent decided yet.

Curious to know what people think...?

You know I like it Michael Having them part of the forums. I think the Photo's on top are a bigger draw than on the bottom but just one man's opinion.

It's a good rule of thumb to have everything that's important at the top part of your page where a user does not have to scroll to see it. There's a term for this, but I forget it. The pictures would draw your visitors eyes' and get them pulled-in.

Personally, I like the forums at the top. The forums are why people are there, the pictures are just a bonus to the forum users, IMO. Of course, on viperalley, the pictures are probably just as big a part.

I'm going to do one of two things: 1) move the gallery to the top, or 2) just use a photo feature on the sidebar. The image galleries are a big draw, but its the forums people come for most. Moving it to the top is a bit of a pain (if you think about the ubbt_photopost.tmpl logic), because I'd have to split that up into two parts.

I'm waiting to see how our users respond - we used to section the three areas off with "features"; but I felt that the page was getting "crowded".

I think I might play and see what my user's like

Well, after having the forums all in one list the feedback was that people missed the "seperation" of the features. They liked having the Reviews and Photos offset with "featured" items. One big forum threw people as they had to really look to where they wanted to go.

So, its back to the way it was.

But, it was a good experiment.

Oh Darn oh well here is what I ended up with.

I modified things a bit. Thanks for sharing your work. I went ahead and created the Sidebar Photo display. I already used the individual one on the entrance page. I like the forums and gallery together but then as you state your user's are so use to the way it way it was hard for them to get used to it.

http://www.reeftalk.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=

That looks good! I like the featured photos on the sidebar.

You gave me the idea to do it.

Well, my latest project has been to hack ReviewPost for a day. I added a "Vendor Reviews" section which has a different interface (and a new Add Vendor link). Vendors get three ratings (one for Customer Service, one for Prices and one Overall). When a user uploads a new product, they are given the list of already uploaded Vendors or can enter a new one (entering a new one creates a new Vendor listing).

Then, the best part, the Product Reviews are linked to the Vendor Reviews and the Vendor Reviews list all the Products being reviewed.

It took about a day to do with the new templates.

http://www.viperalley.com/viperrev/showp...t=14&page=1

Now you'll see a Products Reviewed section linking to all the vendors products. And in the Product Reveiews, the company name links to the vendors review!

The lack of sleep seems to be having a negative effect on my brain; but when I get on a roll, I cant seem to stop! lol

Looks Great Michael. That is a great addition to an already great product.