New site theme?

Hi Marley,

Thanks chuck.

Just one thing missing from there-

How to save face when you have made a plonker of yourself by not following simple logic.

 

"generally speaking most internet users in the UK have broadband ... so pages will still load fast"

Not in my experience (we build vast sites that have huge numbers of visitors; optimising the pages is our number 1 priority). Adding more images adds complexity which also increases the load on the server, not just the page loading speed.

"So what speed is your broadband"

My internet here, at home, is 8MBit business rate (i.e. very little "contention ratio"). Other forums which are more "flashy" are noticeably slower to use, even with my above-average broadband.

I won't dispute that more flashy is initially more attractive, but I will dispute that would attract more visitors. My gut feeling is that most new visitors will arrive here looking for the answer to some problem - e.g. via Google. The quality of the answer will be key to them "bookmarking" the site. However, if for any reason the site is slow to display the likelihood is that they will click-off before the page actually displays.

Over 75% over the members here have 5 posts or less (most likely a specific problem that they needed help with), the regulars are here for a different reason. In my case I looked around the gardening forums that were available and made a conscious choice which ones I liked the look of, which translates to "community", speed and performance. That said, I'm dyslexic so I have all the avatars and signatures turned off as they all make it hard for me to digest the content - similarly any posts which are in unusual fonts and colours rarely get read as they take me much longer to "process" - so I may not represent the Average User.

If my lot were building this site I am sure they could do "flashy" and "fast", however just taking bog-standard forum software, like vBulletin as used here, and tarting it up will add significant inefficiency, unless the folk doing it are skilled-in-the-art. I don't know whether they are, or not. If they have paid people to build / design the site for them then it would represent cost, if they have the skills then it would represent time ... but its up to The Powers That Be in the end of course.

As other have mentioned things like not being able to upload images here are issues that have not been solved (and the recommended solution is a "Sticky" in How To but not in FAQ); edited posts don't indicate that they have been changed, and so on; [although the "the problem with the site update at 12 at night" is a sticky but in "General Gardening Discussion" rather than FAQ etc]

Based on that I assume that implementing a flashy, but also fast, site is not likely to be an in-house job.

 

so a larger banner logo and some colour is going to reduce the speed of a page loading...right ok also i did mention that this probably isn't a priority just that it would be nice

 

Phew, Kalmia, Bet you wished you never asked!!

 

Agreed:rolleyes:

 

I have to add to that Claire. Its the quality and content of the answers to questions is why I think people come back or stay...plus our little funny sections.

I have found Gardeners Corner to be an excellent, no frills site....the content speaks for itself and its brilliant.

I hate "flash sites" having to click on this and that to get to the meat so to speak. You have peeps asking again and again, how do I do this, or how do I do that......all they need to do is log in and read the blinkin info that is on here. But that happens on all sites and forums.

Granted, there are a couple of things that maybe could be addressed, but nowt serious.

The site is not stuffed with flashing advertisements and links...I really don't know how the hosts pay for it to be honest...perhaps its just a labour of love. I for one, would subscribe to fund raising for this site without hesitation as it is, so, so good.:thumb:

 

"so a larger banner logo ..."

Probably (particularly so for a first-time visitor) [taller would also push the content lower down the page, which requires scrolling and tends to have a negative effect on visitors; Google can consider content which is lower down the page to be less "valuable" - although I don't know if a tall image causes that effect, compared to lots-of-useless-wibble ]

"... and some colour is going to reduce the speed of a page loading"

a different colour should make no difference (generally speaking).

Sorry, hope I don't sound like I am wearing size-12's. Just voicing my opinion, its up to The Powers That Be to do as they see fit, and I definitely think that ideas are worth voicing.

 

... and I see that the thread has led to some Stickeys in other places, so well done Marley :thumb:

 

I think people give up quickly when looking for help if they don;t find the answer easily, so I think that's an excellent idea.

 

FYI, the logo was designed to match the original site which had a skin of purple and green. I doubt Nathan has any plans to change it just yet.

 

Thanks for the list KL.I see one of GC's members has joined one of those forums and has used my user name but has changed the spelling of it {candyfloss}.:eek::p:rolleyes::D

 

my 2p worth.
like the site as it is.
it is great
thanks for the sticky ...specially aobut how to upload pictures from photobucket