Aloha.

I think I'm beginning to like TCH quite a bit.

Noticed you have the site review section, and thought I'd bring mine up and see what opinions I can gather to improve it.

So, just click here.

I'm also interested in link exchanges if you've got similar site material/theme.

~RB

Reality_Burst,

First, let me welcome you to TCH and the family. I know you have been welcomed in other forums, but I haven't had a chance to welcome you yet.

Ok. So on to the review of your site.

Your site reminds me a lot of my portofolio site: black background; use of scrolling text (I use iFrames, I think you are using JavaScript).

That said, I will suggest that many people don't like to read white text on a black background. Feel free to make this choice if you want to (remember, I'm doing it on my site), but recognize that many people will find long passages of text hard to read. (On my site, I recognize that my audience will never be reading long passages of text, so I'm okay with my color scheme.)

I find your scrolling functionality difficult to use. When I scroll down, I can't control the speed, and I can't get back to the top easily.

I don't like the scrolling text in the status bar. I have it disabled in my Firefox browser, but I viewed your site in IE. Your Google adsense doesn't work in Firefox, but does in IE.

I don't like that I have to install an applet to go to the downloads page. I think you should open the page, warn users about the applet (tell them why they need it and what its for), and then give them the choice whether or not they want it. But I won't install it because I dont' know why I should.

If the site appeals to you, and the site is for you, then you can do whatever you want. But my gut reaction is that the scrolling text area doesn't work great for your site. I personally find it too difficult to use.

Thank you. I'll definately have to consider changing the scrolling text as you've mentioned. I've considered changing that format for quite some time now.

About the applet on the downloads page? I've not set up anything there that could create that. I've noticed some users of the music section have mentioned that they are prompted to allow activex; that's not from me though, that's just software issues...Is that the section you meant?

Didn't know about the google ads not working with Firefox either, wonder if they know that?!

Cheers

Hi Reality_Burst,

Your site crashed my browser (Firefox on Mac). I'm pretty sure it was the Chat page that did it. If you have a lot of Firefox and/or Mac users, you might want to look in to chat programs and find a different one. If they are a small portion of your user base, you might be ok with them being unable to use that feature.

I'd second the scrolling text veto -- I don't see anything in your page design that "needs" the text to stay within a certain-sized box, and the scrolling makes it 2x as difficult for me to get to content. It also slows down the page load for me -- the first time I went to the About page, I thought there was no content because it took so long to load up.

My biggest concern, though, is that I honestly don't know what your site is about/what its purpose is. The news feed on the front page (the first thing I see) doesn't tell me anything -- news feeds are a dime a dozen. I went into your forum, but while it looks fairly active, as a new user I didn't see any guidelines or rules posted to help orient me to ongoing conversations and rules. I did eventually find the rules on the About page, but it took me a while because there was no direct link there. Even after poking around I'm not certain I know what the connection is between the Music, Downloads, Forum, and Links pages are; I thought I knew, and then the Bookstore made me think this is a paranormal/conspiracy theory site (maybe it is... in which case, all is clear now).

Your current visitors may be familiar enough with the site it all makes sense to them, and I get the feeling you may get a lot of visitors who are already clued in to what is going on, but you might want to think more about the random visitor who stumbles across your site unaware -- use your main index page more aggressively to introduce your site's purpose and features, so the new visitor knows what is going on and what each section offers them. Maybe a New Posters' Orientation sticky in the forum? Anything that will help your visitor connect all the material on your site is a good thing.

You seem to have a fairly active community and a lot of supporting materials, so the more you help visitors make use of all those resources, the better your site will be.

Wow. That was a great review and I thank you for being sincere about it owatagal.

You also make several points that I may have possible 'overlooked.' Thank you for pointing them out, all of you.

The site's had a that infamous conspiracy based label, but it's not really. It's simply about keeping your mind open to what's going on. Very simple, truth. The news, forum and chat, are for discussions of current events, or not. The rest is entertainment (music, bookstore, downloads and such). It's still expanding, I have more ideas as to what else to incorporate, but I want to make it as user friendly as possible.

Cheers.
Keep 'em coming please.

Did it get automatically deleted?

I just wanted to update that thread today to say I finally revamped my site and wanted more opinions.

CLICK ME

Are you talking about this thread?

I merged the threads

Yes! Thanks for the merge!

it's been over 2 years now. can you believe it?

i'd like to have you guys tell me what you think NOW. lol

i love feedback, so if you got it, bring it.

The link at the top of the page doesn't work any more - might be worth providing a new link ( or a redirect from index.htm to your new index)

Overall, I like it

I noticed that the background colour to the menu items is a different colour to the background at that point though - I find it catches the eye and distracts slightly.

sorry, can't figure out how to edit my original post. not sure if i have the option, so instead i added a signature banner.

thanks for the review, which menu items are you referring to though?

and is the color a bad thing?

http://www.thirdeyeconcept.com/

The 'discussion', 'online radio' ...

is the colour a good thing ..... from a personal viewpoint I think it detracts from a professional looking site .... but that's just a personal view.

i just made that change yesterday too! lol

i'm having a hard time with buttons...

(you called it professional looking, thank you!)