feedback needed for phpbb forum

Hello again I just finished my forum. I have the sub-forums set up as in guest section guests can reply and read topics, but in the member sections guests can only enter the sub-forum, and brouse the list needing to log in to read topics.

I have gotten a lot of views, but no one has joined the board yet what can I do to attract people.

first time with phpbb.

 

The very first thing I noticed is that I can't read any of the board titles. I don't know if it's black text on black background, or if it's just missing, but as a new visitor, I'm lost. The second thing I see is there isn't very much content here, so on top of being lost (not knowing where to start, or what you have that might interest me), I'm not going to be inclined to sign up. I will also add, but this is my personal opinion here, that the color scheme appears to be a bit bland, but I enjoy color, so please take this with a grain of salt.



Attracting people is the first and last problem of every forum administrator, myself included. I've had my forum up for five years, and it's totally dead. I'm in the process of rebranding my site and refocusing my niche, complete with a branding overhaul. This also means I'm dumping some money into my digital paradise. It's a slow and painful process, and I'm hoping that I can make something work. However, I also know this is an uphill battle. There are tons of already existing role playing forums that people can join (and from what I've seen recently, most of them are struggling as well). People have gotten really lazy lately, and tend to stick to the mega-platforms, that offer quick hits of dopamine for contribution a thoughtless post here and there. Sites like Facebook, Reddit, even video sites like YouTube and TikTok are stealing not only eyeballs from smaller forums like ours, but also people's time.

My advice: Create this forum for yourself first and foremost. I know that when I finally re-launch my new and improved site, I'm going to be doing some solo-role playing for a while. Build up that content, give people a chance to see what I offer for a role playing space. If nobody dares to show up and sign up, then that's okay, because I've created a digital notebook that has new memories and fond adventures that I can visit from anywhere at any time.

 

I use narrator so I saw the titles just fine, but I'll try to fix it. The styles is brand new actually since I did the colors myself. I'm trying to go simple this go around 'cause I made a bunch of subforums with mybb and the result was the same.

 

I fixed the colors it was the h1 h2 and h3 colors sorry. and I had to add those a href links in the theme stylesheet to connect all the theme files together.

hope that made the titles more viewable please let me know if i need to fix it more since this is my first at phpbb styles which is way mor optional then mybb.

 

I'm ready for another check. I moved a lot of things around in topic pages the little navigation buttons to tell where the person is while browsing is more viewable now. The theme colors looks much better even if I'm using high contrast dark mode.
The header looks much better too now.

 

I took another look at your site. It has improved, but there is still room for improvement. I'm not sure if this is intentional with the layout, but the text appears to be squished over to the left? It's a little jarring. As a fairly newbie to role playing forums, I feel a little lost as a first time visitor. What exactly is the role play theme? What's the setting? Where are the rules that I need to abide by? Also, I'm sure I missed it, but there's a RPG Rating somewhere, right? I think you should also add some more depth/discussions to the forum? Like I said, I'm not really sure how to proceed as a new person on your site.

I do like the toggle between light and dark modes.

 

okay will work on it. At least I got the colors better. / titles can be seen now.

 

Alright things look much better. set everything to justify in stylesheet css stuff. moved stuff around in header file. Even I can see the little navigation links under the discription at top of page. To tell people it's a mult-genre thing info snip was put in the sub-fourm discription showing up on index / front page. The content rules explains the rating thing since we have safe only story, mature / no story and mature with story sections to choose from.

 

All done ready for another look over. Feels more complete all sub-fourms have discription. I can see all nob links and the nav bar that has the topic links.
small and simple 'cause it's instant chat mode in sub-fourm each thread is a room.

 

Is it supposed to look like this? I entered what I think is the main announcement forum for your site?

 

Justify mode seemed to fix the text problem you said earlier. Do you mean the about topic or the front page that shows all sub-fourms?

the topic page when viewed should be header nav bar search bar jump box / select forum box, post reply button with serch box by it title of topic / subject radio button auther / info subject line again then post content with sig at bottom / edit delete button.

 

It's my first time with phpbb fourm format.

 

Okay, I think I see where the text is supposed to be displayed. It's that little code select box over to the lower left, correct?

 

yes that's the jump box.

 

I think the forum edits are done. thanks a lot for the second pair of eyes on it.
font size fixed and all.
This topic will be still be open.

 

A couple of things. YAY! I can read the text, but the first image, it's really good that the links highlight when I hover over them, otherwise, it's hard to read those links.



The second thing. When I look at an actual post, this is what I see. I'm on a desktop computer, so yes, I can read it, but it's not very relaxed and comfortable with the text pressed up against the left side of my window with all that blank space to the right.

 

sorry I didnt read this til now. I already saw the issues, and almost killed my eyeball fixing it. posts are now viewable. Had to add html to get it to actually show up outside of narrator. Bold links off line split between discription nav links nav bar / search bar.

Text size finally adjusted right which took forever which was the css part for reason.

finally happy with text color in dark mode.

 

The text still is just a narrow strip along the left side of my screen.

 

maybe that's just how phpbb 3 mar 15 works for the software. I can try center in css. At the moment its at justify.

Messing around in the colors file is a pain.


Is the button and links better? the highlight thing is disabled.

 

There appear to be forum links, but they are totally invisible light mode and dark mode. At least in Dark mode, I can see the links below that. I wonder if there's like a width= setting somewhere that's causing the text to become narrowed?