[Horror Movies and More]

[Þђªй†øҧ™]

Horror Movies and More
Mara & -k!ng$n@k3-, here is my board.

I'm anxiously awaiting your opinions.

[danvari]

First look. Great skin! I saw all that stuff. It makes it really look like a horror movie place! 10 bloody sculls out of 10 for skin.
Boards and other.
It took me a while to find the rules. Maybe you can make it a menu button? Now I see all your boards. Most of the time I wouldn't approve but you seem to handle it good.

Sorry I have no more.

[Mara]

Well, since you are waiting... lol...


Colors/Color scheme

I'm usually not a fan of the dark red and black color schemes, but since this is a horror board, I don't think you could have went with anything else.. like pink or something, lol. Here in this context, I think it works well. All the colors match and nothing sticks out horribly.

Most everything is pretty easy to read.

I do have to say that the thread link color, that dark red, is a little hard to see. Perhaps it can be lightened a bit? But not too bright that it's blinding. (Like your welcome message at the top.. I think it's a bit too bright and stands out too much from the rest of the board).

Plus you have an awful lot of different colors for all your member/mod link colors.. Are all those differences needed? I would go with just one for admin, one for gmod, one for mod and one for members. If you need a VIP or special member color, then that can be a fifth.
The dark green, especially, is very hard to read.

I think using a lot of colors makes the board too campy or frilly. And it detracts a bit from the color scheme.
If you change the colors... keep them in your theme and color scheme.. They have to be easy on the eyes, but match as well.. as much as you can do so.


But overall... I think this color scheme is good.. and has great potential. I would just tone it down a bit and make sure you're using colors that at all related/complementary. Like, stay in the rane of blacks/grays/whites and reds/oranges.


Graphics/Images:

Banner - This is pretty cool. I love how it flashes. Just make sure it's not too fast that someone might seizure or something, lol. But I thik it's slow enough. Also, the filmstrip part is blank to me. Is there supposed to be something there? If not, I would put something there if you can. It just looks...plain to me. Maybe you could put some images of horror movies in?

Menu buttons - Nice, plain and simple. Easy to read.

Header/footer images - These are really awesome.. but they are also really, really big. They probably increase the length of your board by almost double.. making it seem like you have a lot more boards than you do.

Gradients - Like the menu buttons - nice, plain and simple.

Background - Simple, not too "busy" and properly matches the theme and the color scheme.

Smilies - In the Off Topic board... I would remove them. Whenever I see images or smilies used like that, I immediately think less of a board. It seems juvenile and immature. People don't need little smilies to know what a board is for. The description and title is there.
Same goes for the YouTube graphic. (I think the Grindhouse one is fine, if you can make it smaller so it doesn't detract too much from the other boards and categories).

Other - the 24 hours sign is pretty cool.


Overall.. Let's see. Awesome job on all the graphics. But maybe a little too awesome. A few little things could be toned down, like I said.


Content/Layout

Okay, I think you have everything laid out pretty good... all the important parts (welcome and horror) are at the top. You have to keep your main topics where they are seen most. It's the focus.

I do have one suggestion, though.. Perhaps the "Graphics" board in the Members category could be moved to the Off Topic category. I don't see how that involves new members.

Also, I don't see why New Members need their own category to themselves. You can use sub-boards.

For example:

Main Office
--Admin
--Comments/Suggestions
--New Members
-----Intro
-----Photos and Profiles
--Staff

It's pretty easy.. just create sub-boards of the same names in a new board... and move over the threads. Then you can just delete the New Members category.
But, like I said.. it's just a suggestion to make everything more cohesive.

I also noticed that you gave each movie a separate board. As it stands now, it's fine. But I'm sure you are missing a lot of movies.. and then it would be really cluttered to have like 10-15 boards for each movie. Then you might need to reorganize. But if you don't ever add any more.. I think it's fine as it is.
It was a good idea to order the movies by which kind of horror they fall under.

In your Members Only area.. it seems that it pertains more to the topic at hand--horror--than it does to anything off topic. So I think that category could be moved up to be above the Off Topic category. Or even moved above the And More! category. It might make a little more sense.


Besides the layout... I think you've got your topic covered well. There's lots of areas for horror discussion, plus a couple areas to relax and discuss other things in.
There are a lot of boards, but most seem to be getting a lot of use.

So overall.. your content is very good... and your layout is good, as well, but it could be better and more cohesive if a few things are switched around.


Coding/Odds 'n' Ends:

Just a few things that don't fit elsewhere...

Welcome area - Okay.. this seems a bit... clustered to me. There is a lot going on. I don't really know what to change, but... Maybe it's because of the welcome message above it along with the Open 24 hours (aren't most boards open 24 hours? lol... but I do like it) plus your newsfader. I think the welcome message on the top could be taken out all together and either put into the welcome box.. or into the newsfader.

Okay, that's the only thing that really stands out to me.

As for codes.. I think you've probably got quite a few already...so I won't suggest any.





Okay, that's my rate. My overall impression is that this is a great board that had a lot of hard work put into it. And it can be an even better board if a few tweaks here and there are made.
Good luck!

Any questions about my suggestions/comments, please let me know.