.BlackGamer.net

[DRE]

Check out my new XenForo forum: http://www.blackgamer.net/forum

I posted about the idea previously here: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/black-gaming-xenforo-site.19549/

But that thread got locked up.

Main site: www.BlackGamer.net

I edited banner at www.pixlr.com

Flexile Dark XF Skin: Free
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/flexile-dark.9938/

Using Stargaze Wordpress Theme: Free
http://www.wordpressthemesbook.com/stargaze/

With XenScripts Wordpress bridge: $39
http://xenscripts.com/xenforo-to-wordpress-bridge/

LN Blog: Free
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/ln-blog.12701/

XenMedio: Free
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/8wayrun-com-xenmedio-media.8092/

 

[faeronsayn]

It is quite good, but I think the banner itself, on the forum, could be blended in a little better for sure. Maybe even just use a logo instead of the whole banner.

 

[CTXMedia]

The header graphic seems to change to a different one when loading the chat page. Is this still a work in progress?

The focus/name of the site is Black Gamer - however 75% of the forums are unrelated to gaming and are instead more black culture; this may work against you as it dilutes the key focus of the site - gaming. Consider reducing the "culture" forums to just the few headings you've used and expanding the "gamer/gaming" ones.

The theme itself looks okay - as dark site skins go it works well, and the blue is a good contrast.

The overuse/over-emphasis of the word "Black" on virtually every forum name doesn't really work for me. I can understand the want to create key phrases, etc. for search engines, but for me it just looks a bit too much. However, as per my thoughts above about the non-gamer focus - maybe reducing those specific forums would sort this too.

I'd also reconsider the inclusion of this article - it doesn't come across as particularly positive (for your site I mean) - and instead replace it with something more positive that explains that you got some negative feedback but you're doing it anyway and explain - positively - why:
http://www.blackgamer.net/2011/09/16/the-demise-of-black-gamer/

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Bob]

you must be working on it..

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_IF in /home/thethleg/public_html/blackgamer.net/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/nggfunctions.php on line 583

 

[DRE]

It is quite good, but I think the banner itself, on the forum, could be blended in a little better for sure. Maybe even just use a logo instead of the whole banner.

I agree. I had never used a gradient in this manner before. I was playing around in www.pixlr.com and saw that I could do it with Layer Styles. I was at work though so I couldn't spend more time experimenting. A lot of graphics I do are rush jobs with www.pixlr.com http://cooltext.com and http://glowtxt.com unfortunately.

A logo instead of the whole banner? I am using both. You can tell when you resize the width of your browser window.

 

[DRE]

The header graphic seems to change to a different one when loading the chat page. Is this still a work in progress?

The focus/name of the site is Black Gamer - however 75% of the forums are unrelated to gaming and are instead more black culture; this may work against you as it dilutes the key focus of the site - gaming. Consider reducing the "culture" forums to just the few headings you've used and expanding the "gamer/gaming" ones.

The theme itself looks okay - as dark site skins go it works well, and the blue is a good contrast.

The overuse/over-emphasis of the word "Black" on virtually every forum name doesn't really work for me. I can understand the want to create key phrases, etc. for search engines, but for me it just looks a bit too much. However, as per my thoughts above about the non-gamer focus - maybe reducing those specific forums would sort this too.

I'd also reconsider the inclusion of this article - it doesn't come across as particularly positive (for your site I mean) - and instead replace it with something more positive that explains that you got some negative feedback but you're doing it anyway and explain - positively - why:
http://www.blackgamer.net/2011/09/16/the-demise-of-black-gamer/

Cheers,
Shaun

I agree with everything you said but if you had read more into the article, you would see the last part focused on 'Contrarian Thinking' - doing stuff most people don't agree with but doing it anyway because you think it's funny. That's why there are so many subforums that start with the word Black.

So while I intend to seriously write articles for the site, I'm also having fun being a little ridiculous.

 

[DRE]

you must be working on it..

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_IF in /home/thethleg/public_html/blackgamer.net/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/nggfunctions.php on line 583

LOL Yeah that's next gen gallery. I uninstalled it. I've read on some other site about a guy saying he hated next gen gallery and now I know why. I was trying to configure it so that the star ratings show at the bottom of the image when you are viewing it. I will have to create a test wordpress and configure it there instead of my main site. smh.

 

[DRE]

I didn't like the index.php at the end of the forum link so I turned on mod-rewrite full friendly urls but it made links look like forum/forums whenever you go to another page. Because of that, I tried renaming it to the normal xenforo directory name of community. Then I realized some peeps can't spell community so I renamed it niccas. New link is www.blackgamer.net/nicca

 

[Russ]

At first I thought you were serious with this... but now I realize that this just seems like a massive troll effort. niccas? Seriously?

 

[CTXMedia]

At first I thought you were serious with this... but now I realize that this just seems like a massive troll effort. niccas? Seriously?

Me to. Thought I'd give 8th the benefit of the doubt and try to be constructive, but he's just trolling.

As a final thought, maybe you could add a "crackers" forum too - you know, complete the set!

What a waste of everyone's time.

 

[DRE]

You both are way too serious, that's why Blacks need our own gaming forum. If you knew anything about Black people, if you had any Black friends at all, you'd know we love to joke around.

 

[DRE]

Changed it to b instead of nicca.

 

[Digital Jedi]

Black people? Where!?

OMG, you have no idea how much I love to mess with white folks who, well, let's just say the can't see my avatar here.

Yeah, I looked through that thread a little. Sometimes people forget that as minorities, niche topics about specializations in our specific races is a good thing. That's why we have Black History Month or National Spanish Heritage Month, neither of which my wife and I seem to remember until it's over. But I digress. We dont' take ourselves that gravely.

As some constructive criticism, I love most everything about the site, except the banner. There should be some mention of the site's function and purpose in the banner, if not also in the graphic design. It's somewhat harder to know, just from the banner, what your site is about, unless you come in on the landing page. Something like this site my wife visits http://newlynatural.com/, gives a visitor to any page a sense of what the site is about from both the graphic and the tag line.

Maybe something like "African American's Getting Their Game On" or something less serious like "Black People Got Game". (I'm sure with some though, you can do better, but you get the idea.) I would even suggest, though maybe harder to do, is a graphic more related to black gamers then a line up of random video game characters. If you can get a designer on it, do something that suggests what the site is about. Maybe a Boondocks/Homies-esque type character(s) actually gaming.

 

[DRE]

Black people? Where!?

OMG, you have no idea how much I love to mess with white folks who, well, let's just say the can't see my avatar here.

Yeah, I looked through that thread a little. Sometimes people forget that as minorities, niche topics about specializations in our specific races is a good thing. That's why we have Black History Month or National Spanish Heritage Month, neither of which my wife and I seem to remember until it's over. But I digress. We dont' take ourselves that gravely.

As some constructive criticism, I love most everything about the site, except the banner. There should be some mention of the site's function and purpose in the banner, if not also in the graphic design. It's somewhat harder to know, just from the banner, what your site is about, unless you come in on the landing page. Something like this site my wife visits http://newlynatural.com/, gives a visitor to any page a sense of what the site is about from both the graphic and the tag line.

Maybe something like "African American's Getting Their Game On" or something less serious like "Black People Got Game". (I'm sure with some though, you can do better, but you get the idea.) I would even suggest, though maybe harder to do, is a graphic more related to black gamers then a line up of random video game characters. If you can get a designer on it, do something that suggests what the site is about. Maybe a Boondocks/Homies-esque type character(s) actually gaming.

LOL Someone on another site got on to me about the lack of pc gaming characters on the banner and said he wants pc coverage. He posted a pic of the main character of the pc game Urban Chaos who is a black woman. That inspired me to change the banner to all Black video game characters. This banner is old though, I made it for another video game forum and recycled it for black gamer which wasn't a good idea after all.

So I'll be looking for black video game characters to throw up on the banner. Seeing a row of Black video game characters should be obvious about what the site is about without having to use words, which was a good suggestion btw thanks!

 

[DRE]

Oh yeah that Newly Natural banner made it very obvious! I love the banner too. Real creative.

 

[DRE]

I changed nicca to b @Russ @GeekChat

 

[Digital Doctor]

With XenScripts Wordpress bridge: $39
http://xenscripts.com/xenforo-to-wordpress-bridge/

How did you hear about that ?

 

[Digital Doctor]

^ joking aside
Your Xenforo + Wordpress integration looks great.
I'd try to get the toolbars to line up better.

 

[Digital Jedi]

LOL Someone on another site got on to me about the lack of pc gaming characters on the banner and said he wants pc coverage. He posted a pic of the main character of the pc game Urban Chaos who is a black woman. That inspired me to change the banner to all Black video game characters. This banner is old though, I made it for another video game forum and recycled it for black gamer which wasn't a good idea after all.

Where are all the black mobile game characters!

Oh...

So I'll be looking for black video game characters to throw up on the banner. Seeing a row of Black video game characters should be obvious about what the site is about without having to use words, which was a good suggestion btw thanks!

Whatever you do, just try to keep the number of afros and bald guys to a minimum. I'm not entirely sure why, but it seems the video game industry can't render a black person without him being bald or in an afro.

You kinda have to scroll through their videos, but TRUEGAMERHEADZ put up a series of videos with the top twenty black video game characters of all times. They start right around page 13. I didn't look through them all, so I don't know how serious they were taking it (they included Sonic: The Hedghog ) but maybe it will help fill in some gaps.

Oh, when I visited, there were no links to the articles in the slider. Might want to put those in if you can.

 

[DRE]

How did you hear about that ?

In XenForo Forums I typed wordpress and checked 'search thread titles only' and saw it in a thread on here.

I might have found it by following a different link in this thread: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/wordpress-dynamic-theme-wpxencss.12057/