Hey hope everyone had a better weekend than I did,

Anyway I have a site that I need critique on, Ive done this before and listened to what most said on here and made drastic changes. (Thank you Angel and 2cents; even though i dont like you)

I understand the issue of no content will come up, but I know that part already. If you have any advice, statements, opinions please let me know it is very welcome. What i dont want to hear is "i dont like the site" without giving a reason, i will probably even dissagree with you just because I put alot of hours into this.

Oh the site is http://www.talkofnaija.com

Please let me know what you think. Thanks

Is you site just a forum as this one?

cause the main page says site underconstruction and then leaves a link to go to the forum.

And then:
Sorry, SMF was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later.

Thats the message I got the times I tried going to the forum.

Please note: My comments are based on the fact that I use FF

What I like:
1) Your use of Javascript effects (mootools, etc)
2) Your joomla customization
3) Separation of your CSS hacks via external stylesheets, instead of embedding them within the page

what I don't like:
1) "certified naija runs" image is covering the search field
2) Background: In my opinion, too dark, and makes text hard to read.

I hope these help.

Thank you both for responding. Salvage, yes there is a forum as well. Thank you for pointing the error out to me. I do not believe it should say the "site is under construction" any more because we deleted that page, ?, Maybe its a temp internet file that needs to be refreshed. I will see what the problem is with why the forum is not displaying. but it has really been killing me to bridge aspects of the site together.

the main site, videos, and forum all have different logins! and building a bridge for both is just killing me right now.

My2cents, thank you. I agree, the image should not cover the search, didnt want to move it too far in the corner though. And I believe before I updated, your criticism of the last site was that it was too dark as well. hmm I dont know whats wrong with me, I just love the way it looks.

How about moving around the site? page loading? and all that, could you ever see yourself going back to that page?

I don't know, maybe it's me, but there seems to be too much going on on the home page. It's like you wanted to use all the effects EVER on just one page.
1. The scrolly pictures zooming across the page? It's flying past too fast, and is VERY distracting to a first time user who doesnt know what is inspiring them to change until they play around a bit.
2. Inconsistency in your rollovers. It's like an unwanted adventure. Every link in every section of the page has a different rollover effect, the left nav turns green and moves right. The links at the bottom highlight. Overkill, man.
3. The text is almost unreadable, brighten the colour of your text a smidge. Look at how Apple does it here: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/
4. why are the links at the bottom so BIG The sign up link is floating in that unnecessarily huge box. Now that we're on it, i also have a problem with those boxes on top too. The icons are too neon-y and well, big.

Otherwise, really you did a commendable effort. P.s. ur forum is not working.

onydchic:

I don't know, maybe it's me, but there seems to be too much going on on the home page. It's like you wanted to use all the effects EVER on just one page.
1. The scrolly pictures zooming across the page? It's flying past too fast, and is VERY distracting to a first time user who doesnt know what is inspiring them to change until they play around a bit.
2. Inconsistency in your rollovers. It's like an unwanted adventure. Every link in every section of the page has a different rollover effect, the left nav turns green and moves right. The links at the bottom highlight. Overkill, man.
3. The text is almost unreadable, brighten the colour of your text a smidge. Look at how Apple does it here: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/
4. why are the links at the bottom so BIG The sign up link is floating in that unnecessarily huge box. Now that we're on it, i also have a problem with those boxes on top too. The icons are too neon-y and well, big.

Otherwise, really you did a commendable effort. P.s. your forum is not working.

I concur

Hey onydchic

thanks for the advice, i love my homepage!. I really do, this is so hard getting critiqued and wanting to defend yourself, but knowing you shouldn't. Here are your arguments I mos def agree with.

The big boxes on the bottom- I cant change them because thats the smallest i could make the music player

Brighten text- I agree, but the site you show has a darker background, if i brighten the text it becomes white and apperars glowy like.

Slow down the image: ehhh, maybe a tad, I think it moves as slow as any other sites module.

Everything else, LOL, im not changing. I love the "overkill", sort of gives me a feeling like i learnt how to do something, I did not understand the inconsistencies you're talking about. there are 3 rollovers, 1 is using images (which are too big) and both glow green, so im a little confused but thank you, ill talk with more people and see what they think. Mos Def change other aspects of it though.

POINT/onydchic:

Slow down the image: ehhh, maybe a tad, I think it moves as slow as any other sites module.

Visit www.thesun.co.uk and see how "fast" theirs moves. There has got to b a way to slow it down. either:

1) You don't understand the code enough to modify the necessary parameter(s), or
2) It is not possible (which I doubt), based on the script (mootools) used to change the necessary parameter(s). If this is the case, herein lies one of the disadvantages of using ready-made code.

Everything else, LOL, im not changing. I love the "overkill", sort of gives me a feeling like i learnt how to do something,

I had a similar conversation with another Nairaland developer from cameroun, though in his case, it had to do with flash. You don't do stuff for the "overkill" factor. Maybe when prototyping, but definitely not for the finished product. In the end, who are you trying to show off for? Yourself? Your fellow developers? or users? Speaking for myself, when I see such stuff, especially since I know the source, it turns me off and I would argue that overdoing things on a site turns off users.

The user should be able to find the information they need with as few distractions as possible. In my opinion, with respect to the slide show, if the user spends all their time looking at/admiring the cool effects, that takes away from why they visited the site in the first place.

Use effects? Yes, moderately. Overkill? No. I think even the Bible says to do things in moderation and some wise people came up with the proverb, "Too much of everything is a disease". In my opinion, the end result should be, "wow, did you see that? It was so cool. I forget what I did to do it/I wonder what new effect he has introduced on his site now" and not, "Not again! I can't stand (insert effect here). If no b say I wan post something, I no for visit. That thing is getting on my nerves. I mean, is this all he can do? Seriously, I liked it at first but it is overkill now".

As always, my 2 cents. And please, keep your responses to this professional, not personal