OpenCity.co.uk UK Discussion Forums

[woopwoop]

I'd be extremely grateful if everyone who reads this post could take a look at (http://www.OpenCity.co.uk) UK discussion forums.

It's another vBulletin based forum and is one of the most ambitious - taking on Craigslist and Gumtree (kinda - but still different offering all the vB benefits - profile, avatar, subscriptions etc).

Please take a look and I appreciate any feedback also.

At the moment the website has a free text service to members. It simply adds a short text advert at the end of your sent message. Check it out (you have to register to try this - but there is no cost)

A couple of nice features, which you can't see is the ad system, enabling me to change individual banners, alt text, title text, url for each and every banner very quickly and efficiently.

Also the site's free text service will eventually be funded by the advertisers who can somewhat target their adverts based on the sender's city (even though it will be the recipient who will read the advert - we figure that there will be many texts sent between friends within the same city - or who are from the same city)

I know I'm heavily pimping it, but would be great if I could hit the ground running as hard as possible with members across the UK posting in their relevant city forums.

Any thought's, ideas, criticisms appreciated.

Please feel free to post them here or on the OpenCity.co.uk official feedback thread here.

Appreciate any support (and please try out the free text service)

 

[paymatters]

There should be a button or link to enable you to register on every page?? The only place I eventually found it was when i tried to post a message and then it wasn't overly obvious.

 

[woopwoop]

Thanks allclear. you have a very good point.

I believe that on the navbar (the bar below the top banner advert - along with calendar, faq etc) should show 'register' but I think it is not obvious at all.

This is on my list to improve. I appreciate your reply because sometimes it's easy for me to forget/miss things when I'm so used to this forum software!

Thanks again I will make a few changes over the next few days.

Any other thoughts? Did you register yet?

Registration is very fast (username/password/email/city - then check your email and click on the link to confirm you're a real person)

 

[Alien]

woopwoop - looks very promising so far and you've obviously put a lot of work into it too..

The hardest bit will be promoting your forum and attracting new members and repeat visits from those who register; I think also you need to change/add to the default vB skin too, it looks too similar to thousands of other forums out there.

Good luck.

 

[rjs_essex]

woopwoop - looks very promising so far and you've obviously put a lot of work into it too..

The hardest bit will be promoting your forum and attracting new members and repeat visits from those who register; I think also you need to change/add to the default vB skin too, it looks too similar to thousands of other forums out there.

Good luck.

Agreed, if you skin the forums with a custom template this would improve the site to make it look more unique.

Rich

 

[woopwoop]

Thanks Alien and Rich.

I have just been looking into skins this morning. I have a bunch of vb sites but have never used a skin - not sure how easy it'll be to get to work with the mods I have in there but will take a look.

Thanks for the feedback.