Member Avatar for Lexani

Hey everyone, ive been working of a site for games i play, im not very good at making sites but i kno the basics, can anyone recomend some ideas that would make my site more better, or even help me out with some new animated logos. thanks everyone

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This thread is about improving a small gaming site that’s mainly a forum for posting screenshots. asked for design help and animated logos; , and already made solid starting points. Below are pragmatic, durable UX and technical suggestions you can apply now (no Flash required) and that focus on making the screenshot/forum experience fast, usable, and easy to moderate.

Design the site around images. Use a gallery-first layout so visitors see thumbnails rather than giant files. When users upload, perform server-side validation and generate a web-optimized copy (max width ~1000–1400px) plus a 200–300px thumbnail; show the thumbnail in lists and open the larger version in a lightbox. Enforce file-type and size limits to prevent abuse, and add categories/tags for each game (BF2, Guild Wars, HL2, CS) so content is discoverable. As suggested about focusing on content, remove visible novelty counters and rely on unobtrusive analytics to track growth.

Branding and animation: keep the logo simple and small. Avoid heavy, auto-playing animation; Flash is obsolete. Create a vector/static master (SVG) for crisp scaling, provide a static fallback, and if animation is needed use a very short CSS or small animated GIF under 100 KB. Add a favicon, use a 2–3 color palette, readable type (14–16px body), and ensure good contrast.

Hosting, moderation, and growth: follow ’s advice—if you plan to grow, register a real domain and choose hosting with backups and SSL. Pick forum software that supports attachments, moderation, and spam protection. Draft posting rules and appoint moderators early.

Quick checklist:

  • Replace visible counter with analytics and remove clutter.
  • Implement image workflow: validate, resize, thumbnail, lazy-load.
  • Swap Flash idea for SVG/static logo + optional lightweight animation.
  • Move to proper hosting/domain, enable SSL and backups.
  • Set upload rules, anti-spam, and at least one moderator.

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Member Avatar for mikeandike22

well to make your site better right off the bat the one thing you want on a site is content, i look at your site and it is a blank template. I would also loose the counter or get a less obscure one counters dont really look that professional. for the template it is alright, it is a freewebs one so it looks like it could work out for a gaming page. About animated logos i wouldnt do it unless you know how to do animation really well so i would practice doing stuff in flash before making one. If you are already good at that stuff then i would just say try to not go to over the top. Sometimes people will make a logo that has to much stuff going on and then they loose focus on the content. I think you should just go with a standard logo and just make a good one in phostoshop or something.

Member Avatar for sbmarsh

what games is it you play??

that way i might be able to give you some more ideas.. the best thing for you to do to get ideas in my opinion is visit www.clantemplates.com they have game templates on there have a look at them and you might get some nice ideas from there :D

hope this helps :D

Member Avatar for Lexani

thanks guys, the site is mainly for the forum so we can post our screenshots

Member Avatar for Lexani

i play most bf2 2 and guild wars
but theres also spots for half life 2 and counterstrike. its a gaming site for high end computers

Member Avatar for nominator

You might want to get a template from clantemplates and some proper hosting and a .com domain.
Those are the basic things needed to make a popular website. Also have some nice content and manage it well.

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