Gardening Forums

[nrep]

A few months ago I got a gardening forum up and running, it's currently a small but growing community - but it's a very positive start.

We've had a custom design created for the forums, which I'm particularly proud of . There are also a few tweaks, such as forum read markers once logged in.

http://www.gardening-forums.com/

We're always on the lookout for new members - so please join in if you're interested in gardening . You'll get a very warm welcome!

 

[Chris D]

What a lovely looking site Well done.

Unfortunately I have no interest in gardening otherwise I'd join like a shot

Just a bit of feedback, I'd perhaps look at the member login box. It could do with a bit of spacing between the username and password box.

Also, if you added class="textCtrl" to both <input elements then it would make them look a little bit more like the style of the proper login form with rounded corners etc.

 

[nrep]

Just a bit of feedback, I'd perhaps look at the member login box. It could do with a bit of spacing between the username and password box.

Also, if you added class="textCtrl" to both <input elements then it would make them look a little bit more like the style of the proper login form with rounded corners etc.

Thanks Yorick, I've done just that and the login box looks so much better - thankyou!

 

[WoodiE]

Very sharp looking site. Did you do the design yourself or hire someone to do it, if so who?

 

[Gabby]

Love it! Love it!
Couple of questions

1. How did you put test above your "sign up now" button?
2. How did you get the member login side bar?

Looks great. I love gardening.

gabby

 

[nrep]

Very sharp looking site. Did you do the design yourself or hire someone to do it, if so who?

Thanks! It was a combo of my wife and I working on getting the design done.

Love it! Love it!
Couple of questions

1. How did you put test above your "sign up now" button?
2. How did you get the member login side bar?

Looks great. I love gardening.

gabby

To get the custom text, I just use the Widget Sidebar mod (http://xenforo.com/community/resources/bd-widget-framework.297/) and edited the visitor panel to include some extra text.

For the login menu, I created by own sidebar module again - but this link shows how to do it better than mine :
http://xenforo.com/community/resources/quick-login-in-side-bar.609/update?update=1056

Hope that helps!

 

[Ingenious]

Nicely done - love the node icons!

 

[LPH]

You and your wife have done a fantastic job. I'm not really a fan of full width forums because on a large screen my head moves like it's a tennis match. Maybe you have a fixed width version available for some members.

 

[Krysteo]

Looks great, I like it

 

[dojo]

The design is not 'that' custom, but it does work nicely for the forums. It's fresh and the header really really lovely. Keep up the good work

 

[Hackfall]

Makes me wonder. Where should the balance go - beautiful design or marketing activity?

 

[nrep]

Makes me wonder. Where should the balance go - beautiful design or marketing activity?

Both, ideally - they're not mutually exclusive. The site is quite quiet at the moment, but it gets daily activity and is starting to grow - hopefully with a little more marketing it will liven up over the coming months.

 

[Hackfall]

I'm new to running forums and Xenforo. I've been looking around at various forums listed here and elsewhere and just think it is sad that great design of people like yourself and the brilliant functionality of Xenforo often seems to lead to sites with just a few members. Here's a suggestion. Tell me to mind my own business if you like

On one of my blogs on a few posts people have left comments asking where they can find a user guide on the item that was the subject of the post. Now if you search brand name user guide my blog comes up #1 on Google and other search engines. I didn't plan this it just happened. Now most comments are asking about user guides for older "widgets".

My point is that until you get some content up there folks are not going to find your site. It's hard to predict what content will attract visitors but it is always something that they need an answer to. I guess that people who are generally interested in gardening will never find your site but people who are looking for answers to specific questions will and they will stick around because they are also generally interested in gardening.

Get some content up, review some products, make a directory of stuff gardeners need. Once the pump is primed your users will create the content that they want for you.

 

[nrep]

Thanks for the comments Hackfall - we're working on getting some guides up and running, so I hope that will draw some users in. So far we've got a very dedicated core of users, so I'm confident that users will start to stick around once we've got some more content to draw them in .

 

[raytrails]

I like the site very much! Congrats on a great style and and a pleasant experience

 

[0xym0r0n]

Xenforo will be the end of me I'm joining 1 forum for just about every 10 forums that are posted here.

*bookmarked*

 

[DRE]

Beautiful theme. I have a suggestion on a variation, have one where the footer is soiil or the grass near the header turns into soil so that the rest of the site background is soil.