My New Website (v2) And (hopefully Interesting) Example Articles

[Gerhard]

I created a post asking for feedback for v1 of my website around 5 weeks ago, and I got some extremely useful information from you guys (shout outs to Time Traveler, Blaze 35, abrakamowse and agnosis)! Since then, I've addressed issues mainly related to increasing user friendliness and intuitive use. If anyone has a few minutes of free time, any feedback will be through-and-through greatly considered, as second perspectives are vital for this type of thing, especially since I don't have too much experience behind me.

The website is called reviewedbyconsensus.com and it is ultimately a Q & A platform. What makes it different from other forum websites like Quora and Stackoverflow is that my website also has a wiki functionality (like on Wikipedia). This means that for questions where a consensus is formed, the users can create and update the verdict as they have found it to be. ~~ of course, for some questions there won't be a clear verdict, and in such cases the consensus/wiki will explain the major viewpoints of the forum users - also for small questions with only a few replies, there is no need to write up a wiki-consensus. The wiki also allows users to insert polls and rating bars, so that the website users can vote, and everyone can see the distribution of votes.

Here are some examples of this in action, with pages hopefully also of interest to you guys

• Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing in the Universe? (notice how the wiki at the top inside the gold border was made from the users' inputs)

• The Best Tips for Backpacking Through Europe?

• How to Perform Strong Determination Sits (check out the polls - in this case, I wrote that article in the wiki to start the thread, and from now on anyone can edit it to make it better)

• Review of Actualized.org (check out the polls and rating bar; already receiving 92% "Excellent resource, life changing" and a rating of 95% ~ good stuff Leo)

• What Are the Benefits of Using Psychedelics? (in this case, there have been forum replies, but the wiki has not been written - will do so soon)

• What Is the Better Alternative to the War on Drugs? (there has not been a clear consensus here yet, so no wiki has been compiled as of now for this question either)

Any feedback at all would be greatly welcomed! Including if anything is confusing, artistic changes, technical issues you're having, and ideas for what pages to create next Anything at all

My ultimate hope for this website is to give internet users a platform for reading unbiased reviews (articles like "Best backpacks for travel" are almost always biased towards one of their affiliates), and also my aim is to give readers who want a fast clear-cut answer the option to read a concise conclusion from the wiki for a question like "Best Things to Do and See In and Around Madrid?" (as opposed to having to read through multiple pages of forums, or having to read through all the introductions and backgrounds you usually find in blogs). ~ I hope there is a need out there for this vision

[JKG]

The place where the answers are shown looks a bit confusing. Almost everything has the same font and it is just written one above the other.

I would write "Guest name: xxx" above the answer, in a bold font and maybe with a darker background, so that you can clearly differentiate it from the actual answer.

And I would make "You must login to post comments" smaller and put it at the bottom of those single answer sections. And "Guest answered x days ago" should also be somewhere at the bottom on the same height of the "You must login to post comments".

But I really like the rating function on the left. That looks cool. It just does not function. Do I have to be logged in for rating answers?

[Gerhard]

Thanks for all of that feedback quantum! I've got a few things to do in the morning, but I'm going to try see to those points before bed
 

Yea, I really see what you mean by the answers looking badly-separated, and yes, the text should be moved around and changed a bit. It seems a very necessary improvement now that you've mentioned it; I'll play around with the answers section to make it more visually appealing and easier to read! -thanks

The rating bar should allow anonymous voting! Dammit! I'm speculating it has stopped working due some sort of cacheing or optimization, I'll look into it - hopefully it's an easy fix. (Although eventually rating bars and the polls will eventually require a login once I encounter smart bots trying to manipulate things)

Thanks again quantum for all the feedback - literally all of it was useful! Upvote x10!

Edit: the rating bar should work now, it was the 'remove query strings' optimization causing it (hopefully that's all). If anyone does see it not working for them, please let me know

Edited August 20, 2016 by Gerhard

[Pelin]

I think it is very nicely thought, I have nothing to say about the content, and I see no problem with the question pages, but I am a little concerned about the visual details on the home page.

 

When you open the home page, you cannot understand what the site is about, I think this is the main problem.

I have some feedback about that. See the pic. for reference numbers and my great paint skills.

 

1. Put this not as a header, but a footnote. People don't need to see this first, they can see it after they trust your website and believe in what you do. They won't donate in the first hit anyway! First service, then asking for donation.

 

2. Your theme. It looks like 90s. You know those websites from the 90s that still run (like: http://www.ifindit.com/ circa 1996), it looks like those. Or the website I made using Frontpage like 15 years ago. You need to consider using a more modern theme, with more reader-friendly fonts. Designing a logo may also help; because people in our century are much more visual than ever, a logo makes a website memorable to us, something we can return.

 

3. I would suggest taking this toolbar above, next to login & register. That would be simpler and wouldn't take up much space.

 

4. OK, it is a nice Renaissance picture, but I think it doesn't belong here in the middle. I do not know anything yet about the website except for two sentences in small font size. And this is the end of the front page. And as a critical reader I am not intrigued by those two sentences yet to scroll down. This painting may be in your head, I guess that would make sense. It could be smaller, think of a facebook cover photo, it doesn't take up content space but it gives a nice background.

 

5. and you could have a sidebar on the left or right for the categories, it could be like when you move your cursor there you will see the explanations and subcategories.

 

I hope this was helpful! I look forward to seeing your website thrive!

Edited August 22, 2016 by Pelin

[Gerhard]

Wow! Thanks for that very in depth feedback @Pelin - I really do appreciate the time you took and even an image! Those are exactly the type of things that can make all the difference, but which just didn't really occur to me. Great explanations as well so that a noob like me can understand the reasoning

Now that you've brought it to my attention, I agree with pretty much all your points - I've spent the past while addressing them

I've moved the plea for donations to the footer and to a drop down menu - you're right, that's not an appealing thing to see upon your first hit to the website - that's already improved the commenting rate!

Yea the image wasn't great, I've written a small Mission section on the home page to replace it.

I've also changed the font to Verdana - I think I'm going to continue playing around with the headers' fonts for a while, I'm not quite settled there yet
 

I've also used your general advice of "modernise" to google some ideas, and I've implemented them - hopefully it looks somewhat better.

I'm a bit disappointed it looks like a 90s website though ~ I was going for modern and sleek. I'm not too sure how to change it up though tbh, as minimalism is somewhat important to the design, and I prefer not having a sidebar. There is the logo still to do which will help, that's a work in progress atm. ~~~ ANY advice on modernising or aesthetics would be greatly appreciated

Edited August 23, 2016 by Gerhard

[Pelin]

@Gerhard it already looks better! To make it more modern and minimalist I'd say make the background a simple white or gray without a pattern. Or try black, who knows it may work  

[Gerhard]

Cool, thanks for the advice!

[JKG]

I would make it maybe like this:

 

Make the background behind these categories a bit darker than the rest. And when you slide with your mouse over one of those boxes, let it become a little bit darker, so that you recognize it is selected.

And anytime you go with your mouse on the boxes and click, you should go to the category's site - not only when you click on the heading of the category.

I would like it that way. Its a bit like the windows 8 theme.

[Emerald]

@GerhardI'm checking out your website now and I wanted to make sure that I pointed out a typo that I found. Skepticism is spelled with a 'k' and not a 'c.'

Edited August 24, 2016 by Emerald Wilkins

[Gerhard]

@quantum Thanks for that idea, I really like it! I've done something similar to that, and I reckon I'll add a hover colour change to most of my tables - there's something deeply satisfying about it

@Emerald Wilkins Actually 'scepticism' is usually preferred outside the USA, thanks though, input is always welcome! - I'm sure there a few typos still lurking out there somewhere on the site

[Emerald]

4 hours ago, Gerhard said:

@Emerald Wilkins Actually 'scepticism' is usually preferred outside the USA, thanks though, input is always welcome! - I'm sure there a few typos still lurking out there somewhere on the site

I'm sorry. Sometimes those proper English spellings sneak up on me and I read them as a typo. When I was a teenager I started spelling the word color as colour, just because. Just thinking either was standard to use. My teacher started asking me if I was English. I didn't get it at first.