Please Critique My Ning Network

[Sean Herman]

I recently took over a social networking site which is focused toward freshwater and marine hobbyists, marine biologists, and those in the industry. We had some issues with user interface, which I think I have cleared up in the past week, using sub-tabs, creating multiple ways to get to some of the same pages. 

The point of the site is to increase activity within the hobby/aquatic community and have a link-between for forums, companies, and hobbyists. The majority of our info/ my plans for the site can be found here.

Ironically, we have been running for over a year and only have 150 members. Keep in mind, many of these updates have been made over the past week. We have reached almost 600 likes on facebook (with an all-time high of 3,800 people reached yesterday, and a new record of nearly 4,500 as of a few hours ago). The hard part seems to be getting these likes to become new members. Perhaps over the next couple months when I release all the currently planned updates, traffic will increase?

The site -> http://meetreef.com

Here is our facebook page -> http://www.facebook.com/pages/MeetReefcom/199479846765439

[Sean Herman]

Ryan, how do I set my menu so that pages don't link (unless logged in) while still leaving the page names visible? The only option I see in Tabs & Pages Manager is to make the page invisible to non-members (which makes it seem as though there are no other pages)? Maybe I want something like a redirect to request login? Your thoughts?

[soaringeagle]

only a couple suggestions  remove the members map from the front page its already on a page  under members on the front page just adds to the clutter

actu=uvgity stream isd move off the main  collumn especialy in a low activity site  move it to the collumn thats  on every page  of the site]

the visited the shark reef  textbox move to the top combine it with r=the announcements

whatare the most important features the forums? if so move that up just below that annoneements textbox

\reduce the ammount of scrolling but rearranging and reducing  instead of 5 rows of vids show 1

[Sean Herman]

Just removed the map. Saw that earlier and forgot about it being there.

Reduced the number of photos/videos displayed in news feed.

When I moved the stuff about Shark Reef it maid the announcements box really large, which doesn't look good. So I put it back for now.

[Edit] - MeetReef is supposed to be a network connecting hobbyists to other hobbyists, forums, stores, as well as those in the industry. Main features are to include LFS LookUp (directory of aquarium stores around the US with ratings/reviews by hobbyists for hobbyists), Find your Forum, and The Reef Scene, which is a compilation of photo albums of the user's tank(s). This is a very visual page and is part 2 of My Reef profiles. This will link the members photos to their actual tank/build thread, located on their local forum (or forum of choice).

[soaringeagle]

yea i know it wpuld but wo=ith some reformatting the textbox  it can work

[Sean Herman]

I can see groups and/or the reef scene will become the most active once we get more members, so that's why the activity feed is front and center.

I would like to edit the Announcements box to make it more prominent (without taking up a large amount of space). I also don't like the title fonts on these text boxes but when I change the font in Layout Design Studio the change in font doesn't show up in preview.

[Evelyn Tribole MS RD]

Hi Sean,

We just launched our community a few months ago, and something that really made a difference for us was putting a prominent 'JOIN' button on the home page--perhaps this might help you too.  [ Here's the link www.IntuitiveEatingCommunity.org ] Currently we are not aiming for volume membership, but rather quality content and interaction (to make sure we get the bugs out before we heavily promote our community). At the same time we wanted joining to be easy.  We just hit 800 members, I don't really know what that means in terms of 'success', but we have a very active community, which I find thrilling :-) 

Good luck!

Evelyn

[Sean Herman]

Thank you. We have a text box at left side bar about new members and it tells how to join, but you are correct. We do not currently have a prominent Join button. I will keep that in mind and look for a place to add one as I move some things around.

By the way, congrats on reaching 800! :)

[Sean Herman]

Is there a way to edit the text box so the JOIN button only shows up to users who are not logged in?

[Design Faerie]

I don't see the "water" which would really put some punch on your site---it's fairly vanilla right now.....I know you have your colors, but I don't think that is sufficient..

[Sean Herman]

Yes, I would like to make module backgrounds into a pale blue/grey with a shiny texture overlay. I am working with another NC member to get this part. My logo is an abstract wave, though I am not sure exactly where to add "water" - unless you just mean mentally. :)

[Armani Rouse]

Pretty nice man I checked out your site, it has potential and theres definitely a lot more that could be done! check out my site wellkunnected.com and if theres anything interesting you see there that you'd like to implement on your network let me know and I'll dig up the code for you pal! Continue working with your network, it has major potential!

[Sean Herman]

Thank you. I want to change the layout in order to make it less cluttered, so I am still working on this.