GamR -Some feedback please?

[jake powney]

Hello !

Before you guys say anything I am only 16 years of age so do not criticise my website I am only looking for a bit of feedback - maybe to start the website properly?

My website is GamR - What is GamR ?

• A online gaming community

What does GamR provide - If I get GamR set up full-time it will provide:

• A place to chat
• A place to meet new people
• A place to find out information about games
• A place to post your ideas
• Your own GamR Profile
• And a few more things.

What will Gamr Provide in the future -

• A Gaming Ladder
• A better Community
• And more!

Well I want you to have a look at this Website I have made ( it is just the basic layout with hardly any information in it )
And tell me what you think and if it could work.
I need to upgrade my package to get better facilities and domain name
Thanks/
Jake

[George Dolidze]

We don't pay attention to age here. We review the same whether you're 16 or 76.
Having said that, I've a few point to bring up:

• Don't use splash pages. They are useless and take away time from the visitor.
• make your navigation bigger, more prominent
• some of your images don't show
• there's a random transparent scrollbar by the thumbnails at the bottom of the page
• the view counter is useless. those things are usually rigged. If you want to gather data personally, i recommend google analytics, it's an amazing tool that tells you aboslutely everything there's to know.
• the pages take forever to load, for whatever reason.

[jake powney]

Thanks, and ill take away that splash page then
and some of the images don't show because I have not put them in yet and I dident know that was there ill take that away (oops) and I do not know why they take for ever to load?

One question - shall I upgrade it and try to keep it running or leave it ?

[Blackhawk095]

Sorry to say this, but you have a lot of work to clean up this website. You obviously want this to be a professional gaming community. Therefore, this website needs to look professional. You have a good start, but there are some issues.

Here are some things you may want to change to improve the website.

1. Get rid if the google search bar. I have tried it out. It doesn't search for anything on your website and takes users off of the website, which is NOT good. If you really want a search bar, you can make a basic one using PHP. Look up "php search bar tutorials" in youtube. There are some good ones. (before you ask, you will need a database for this.)

2. Move the copyright notice to the footer. There is no need for it to be where it is now. It takes away from the actual content.

3. Your logo is pixelated. I suggest fixing that. It makes the website look less professional.

That should give you a start.

[Blackhawk095]

By the way, are you going to have profiles on this? If so, are you using your own scripts?

[jake powney]

Ok thanks

And I want to be in the Web design industry, but I love games and at my age I thought I would just make one - but because I am limited to the number of pages I can use I was wondering if anyone could give a idea for a website that I can try and make for free - then see if I can do it to a good enough quality and then maybe make GamR official ?

[Blackhawk095]

You have a very good project. Stick with it and see what you come up with.

If you really want to learn how to build good websites:

1. Make websites for imaginary companies/businesses. Keep the good designs and trash the bad designs. Then, if you meet someone who will pay you for a website, you will already have a bunch of demo sites that you could use as templates.

2. Practice your HTML and CSS coding. Better coding means faster websites. (Try to learn Javascript, PHP, or jQuery. Though these aren't required to build a good website, they really help.)

3. Practice creating graphics. If you aren't much of a graphics person, just focus on the basic stuff, such as gradients, basic logos (like the one you made for your gaming website), and backgrounds.

4. STAY ACTIVE ON THIS FORUM. This is the best webdesign forum you will find on the internet. You will have all of your questions answered here and you will find many tips.

As an example of what you can learn here,

This is the design of a website I made when I first joined this forum.



This is the design of the same website I had about a month ago:
http://www.my-testing-area.netne.net/
(All of the links work. You can take a look around if you want.)

This is the final design of the website:
http://www.my-testing-area2.netau.net/
(I started working on this a week ago. I have finished some pages, but they aren't linked. As for the big black blob on the main page, it will be a flash video.)

Overall, go for simple designs. Simple is your best friend when designing a website.

By the way, age really doesn't matter. As long as you are willing to work to be a good designer everyone here will help you out. I'm also 16, and everyone here as taken me seriously, which is hard to find in most forums. Stay here and you will learn a lot.

[Wired]

but because I am limited to the number of pages I can use

Why are you limited?

BTW, why is it all in flash? It's a static page, NONE of it needs to be in flash.

Also, you can barely see the Digg link.

[jake powney]

I was limited to the number of pages because I was creating it on Moonfruit - its good but bad at same time as it limits the pages.

If you know any really good free software I can use let me know thanks/

And I am going to create a Template website for a company see how it goes, I will post it on here when I'm done or to see if its going alright .

[Andrew Yurlov]

I was limited to the number of pages because I was creating it on Moonfruit - its good but bad at same time as it limits the pages.

If you know any really good free software I can use let me know thanks/

And I am going to create a Template website for a company see how it goes, I will post it on here when I'm done or to see if its going alright .

Hold on. Do you used software like dreamweaver to create website? If so don't bother In my opinion you can be far more creative with your own coding. The longer it takes, better the design will be.

BlackHawk095, lol I've always though you were like in your 30's. IDK why lol.

Btw im only 16 too and im doing fine . Like everyone said age doesn't matter. If you want a good free host for the time being use what im using. Its called 000webhost.
Here's a link: http://www.000webhost.com/