Living Reefs - Saltwater Aquarium Forum

[nrep]

Around this time last year, we moved from vBulletin 3.8 to XenForo, for obvious reasons .

We upgraded the site design, but tried to keep the same feel to the forums. We've gradually been adding extra custom coded things so that the site has all of the features we were previously used to, plus some really handy extra ones (such as the fantastic Showcase add-on).

However, the site has been really quiet since the upgrade - the traffic is around a third of what it was, even though we have re-directs in place and made an effort for a smooth transition. I'm really surprised, as it works so much better than it did before (IMO).

I'd really appreciate you guys casting your eyes over the site to see if you can spot where we can make improvements .

 

[melbo]

Site looks great - a lot of good info. What are you using for the Species DB?

 

[nrep]

Site looks great - a lot of good info. What are you using for the Species DB?

It's just some templating, based on forumID - so those are really just threads that look a little different .

 

[Brad L]

I like what you've done with the background and think overall your site looks great.

 

[BoostN]

Did you use custom CSS for your node icons ?

Site looks great!

 

[agison]

Looks very nice.

 

[nrep]

Thanks guys!

Did you use custom CSS for your node icons ?

Yep, just added some CSS, although it looks like there's now an addon to do this for you: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/custom-node-icon-icon-for-category.632/

 

[BoostN]

Excellent, thanks for the information!

 

[Ingenious]

I'd really appreciate you guys casting your eyes over the site to see if you can spot where we can make improvements .

Usually there are things in most forums that stick out as needing help, but yours is one of the few that just looks brilliant. The whole theme, colours and in particular the custom node icons make the whole forum seem easy, light, clear and friendly.

When you say you have been quiet, what are your expectations? You have over half a million posts and your What's New page only goes back to the weekend, so you do have some traffic there.

Maybe it's less a case of the design being the issue and more a case of encouraging more posts or working on attracting new members (which are maybe areas more suited to you and your staff/long term members discussing, as you alone know your niche well)?

Well done on the design though.

 

[viper357]

However, the site has been really quiet since the upgrade - the traffic is around a third of what it was, even though we have re-directs in place and made an effort for a smooth transition. I

Have you got an update? Have things returned back to normal? Thanks.

 

[nrep]

Have you got an update? Have things returned back to normal? Thanks.

Unfortunately not, but upgrades on other sites have worked fine so I don't think it's software related. We've got a plan to kick start this again soon, once work calms down.

 

[KenBrace]

I must say, that looks awesome! The blue, aqua theme really fits the forum niche. The custom node icons look great as well. That always makes a forum look slick.