New music forum ~ check it out

[BannedPromotions]

BannedForums.com

We're not exactly RecordingReview.com but it's still a pretty neat forum. It's mostly about local music and promoting bands and shows. Lots of different categories, including a tech section. Quick and easy to register so check it out and let me know what you think.

[brandondrury]

Hey dude,

I couldn't get pasted the "I agree I dont' touch 13 year olds" part in IE, but I did get passed it fine in Firefox with javascript disabled. I have no idea what that is all about. In IE, I'd click on the link and it would take me back to the same "13 year olds are too young" page.

Brandon

[BannedPromotions]

LMAO....damn. One person emailed me with the same problem. It's strange, cause I use IE. Wonder what's up? Sign ups have been slow, maybe that's why.

[brandondrury]

Welcome to my world!!!

Brandon

[DT Chris]

I don't like the design of the site. I don't like the name "Banned". Sure, it sounds like "Band", but it fails to communicate the true intent of the site. Is this a site for people who have been banned from forums or game servers or otherwise? Is this a haven for those who feel they have been banned wrongly from elsewhere?

After seeing the huge "BANNED FORUM" logo, then there is a huge "Intel Core Duo" Google AD (I hate Google Ads!), then suddenly there is a "General" forum with an array of random subtopics, trying to be all to everyone.

Unlike RR.Com, these forums are unclear as to who they are catering too. Now add the next section called "Local Bands" and I ask myself... what is this site calling 'local'? Seattle? Los Angeles? New York? Charleston, VA?

The next section on the site, IMO is unneeded. "The Cellar". Not sure why you call this section that. On a band site, I would think it would concern 'underground bands/clubs' etc, but it's a collection of what I call "off-topic" sub-forums. I've never been a fan of 'off-topic' forums on a site. A site should be specific to it's purpose. Music forums should talk music.

Sorry to be so critical, but I'm telling you why I'm not signing up. The site is not inviting at the slightest, the sub-forums in the "General" section seem to be self-serving to BannedForums.com, and their commercial ventures, and don't really offer me any reason to join.

I joined RecordingReview.com simply because Brandon posted great articles on recording, and had organized his forums into clear and concise areas, and the discussions were great.

There is nothing at BannedForums that pulls me in at all. You might want to look at that.

Write some tutorials, reviews, and articles to draw people to your site.

My site (in revamp mode) featured photoshop tutorials, free wallpapers, etc to draw them in, and hopefully they'd explore the rest of the site. Banned doesn't have that going for it yet. It might help with new signups.

Other criticisms:
Make your forums easy to read
If you are going to host an information forum, you need to make it easy to read. Please consider those of us who do a lot of our reading and learning online, and our eyes get weary. So straining to see your white text on black background will be hard to do. A default color, such as Brandon uses, may not be artistically pleasing, but as far as information and long discussions go, is perfect for online readers such as myself.

[BannedPromotions]

Wow, thanks for all the criticism...honestly. I agree on alot of the things you mentioned, some of which I can do absolutely nothing about, some I can.

The style you saw when you went to the site is just one of seven board styles to choose from, so you don't have to be stuck w/the white text/black background - though I agree it can be hard on the eyes.

I do have reviews, articles, interviews and stuff on the main site, BANNED PROMOTIONS - the forum is just a place for linking to the site.

I'll admit it is a work in progress, but there's not any plans to beef it up to "RR.com-quality - vBulletin style stuff". I have the main site at BANNED PROMOTIONS - and this is just a forum for that site. I don't want anything fancy (translation - I'm not spending any money on it), though suggestions are always welcome and thank you again for checking it out.