Can you help me with my website?

Hi.

I recently decided to redevelop one of my websites. It's a Confession Board where you can read other confessions or post your own. I thought it was kind of boring so I scrapped the whole thing and added a couple of features like voting, replying, and added categories.

If you want to help, just go on there and post around. You don't need to sign up and you don't have to say who you are (if you want), it's completely anonymous.

Also let me know what you think about the website in general. Like, is it hard to use? Is it confusing? Does the font suck? Be honest.

My girlfriend already volunteered to help and got some people from Facebook to post, but it's still really empty and sad.

I'd appreciate it.

The Confession Board | Secret confessions, remain anonymous.

I've confessed everything I wanted to say on DV. :o

You should sneakily post it on blogs/forums etc. If someone mentions something, just say "maybe this will help" and post the link.
Or something like that.

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Originally Posted by tommo

You should sneakily post it on blogs/forums etc. If someone mentions something, just say "maybe this will help" and post the link.

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I take it you've done this :lol:

Pay people all over the world to take sharpie markers and write the url everywhere.

Yeah, sneaking it in places where you can remain anonymous might help, anything you can do like that to get it to a diverse set of people, and hope for word of mouth from there. Or just post it to 4chan like you just found it and cross your fingers.

I've had it on my mind to start a website, partly for a learning experience and partly because fuck it why not. Not sure what to put on it though. A few friends recently started doing something we call "the group", which is sort of like the 5/19/13 thing; it grew out of a reference to the "operation overthrow" joke from an episode of The Office; there's been some talk of starting a site to discuss ideas with anyone else we get interested. Your site is some interesting food for thought though. Sort of like a Texts From Last Night type setup, except people can just post stuff they wouldn't want to put anywhere else. I'll think of something to post later.

So far, I posted an ad on craigslist lol. I haven't decided if I want to post it on 4chan though, knowing what some of those members are capable of.

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Originally Posted by Supernova

I've had it on my mind to start a website, partly for a learning experience and partly because fuck it why not. Not sure what to put on it though. A few friends recently started doing something we call "the group", which is sort of like the 5/19/13 thing; it grew out of a reference to the "operation overthrow" joke from an episode of The Office; there's been some talk of starting a site to discuss ideas with anyone else we get interested. Your site is some interesting food for thought though. Sort of like a Texts From Last Night type setup, except people can just post stuff they wouldn't want to put anywhere else. I'll think of something to post later.

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Dude you totally should. If you or a friend has flash, you could make a website with stick animations or something lol. I bet it would be fun :goodjob:

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Originally Posted by louie54

I take it you've done this :lol:

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haha, no. I haven't so far created a website which is deserving of a wide audience.
But that's how you advertise on the internet without having to pay anyone.

The XHTML is allright. Nothing too bulky. And it validates as XHTML 1.0 strict which is nice. Though frankly, I recomend html5 these days. The liquid layout is nice.

Why the javascript embedded though when you're already linking to a main.js? Wouldn't it be better (it would) to just include the script in that file rather than bulking up every page view with it? I normally only embed google analytics in the actual page. And the location is horrible. The browsers will stop to execute the code before they continue scanning the HTML. This means that none of the CSS files or images will start to download until after the code is executed. It looks like the code could run fine if you placed it at the bottom of the body tag. This would be much smoother.

Also, consider using a nice charcoal like #333 for your main text color as opposed to #000. It makes everything slightly softer and adds a nice texture. I personally prefer something like #fafaff to #fff for the background as well.

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Originally Posted by louie54

Dude you totally should. If you or a friend has flash, you could make a website with stick animations or something lol. I bet it would be fun :goodjob:

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YES

I actually (as of now) know nothing about flash, but I'm still working on churning up some ideas. It would be a neat little project, as well as a good learning experience (and a way to act like I actually have an outlet to the world for anything I might feel like saying). In the past I've even just considered hosting a blog type thing, since I would want more freedom than a blogging service can provide and I'm too much of a hipster for blogspot anyway. Something more original would be neat though.

Tell you what, now that I've half hijacked your thread, I'll force myself to come up with something to post to your site. Quid pro quo.

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Originally Posted by louie54

So far, I posted an ad on craigslist lol. I haven't decided if I want to post it on 4chan though, knowing what some of those members are capable of.

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Yes, that could end roughly. I suggest reddit as a compromise.

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Originally Posted by louie54

Dude you totally should. If you or a friend has flash, you could make a website with stick animations or something lol. I bet it would be fun :goodjob:

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I missed this the first time. Let me respond to it.

OH DEAR GOD ANYTHING BUT FLASH!!!

Seriously. It's proprietary technology which won't run on iPhone/pad/ and is bug ridden. Search engines can't crawl flash content and people that are dependant on screen readers can't have access to the content either.

You're much better off sticking with xHTML/CSS/JS and doing so in an accessible, standards compliant manner. With the canvas element becoming common place, there is just so little recommending flash above JS that it would be stupid to use flash for future products.

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Originally Posted by PhilosopherStoned

I missed this the first time. Let me respond to it.

OH DEAR GOD ANYTHING BUT FLASH!!!

Seriously. It's proprietary technology which won't run on iPhone/pad/ and is bug ridden. Search engines can't crawl flash content and people that are dependant on screen readers can't have access to the content either.

You're much better off sticking with xHTML/CSS/JS and doing so in an accessible, standards compliant manner. With the canvas element becoming common place, there is just so little recommending flash above JS that it would be stupid to use flash for future products.

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My friend used flash for her website (one of those crappy online website building things) and actually paid one hundred fucking dollars for a year membership. :facepalm:
Basically told her exactly what you just said lol

Search engines (or at least Google) can search for text in flash websites now. But all the other points you raised are enough to disqualify it from use for websites anyway.
It should be kept for animations and that's about it.

oh god some of these are so funny lol

Oh lol about my flash comment, I didn't mean make a website in flash (that's just dumb even though I admit some are neat), I am talking about the kind of content you would find on newgrounds.com or stickdeath.com, I'm just suggesting making funny movies in flash. The website would of course be using HTML/CSS.

The website was HTML5 before I redeveloped it but I wanted for there to be a way to reply to confessions which I didn't know how to do, so I decided to download a script to make it work. The markup that came with this script was such a huge mess so I spent the whole week cleaning up the code and giving it the blue layout and making sure it validates. I'm not sure why I decided on downgrading to XHTML. I tried creating a separate sheet for the javascript, but for some reason it wouldn't allow people to make replies, so I will have to look into it more and I will be sure to put it after the CSS ;) and I will try out that #333; font color. Thanks for the tips.

So as I mentioned, I started the campaign on craigslist which alone gave me 8 hits last night which is good, it was free, and it was late when I started. I'm a little disappointed though because I got 81 hits yesterday (which is a lot for me) but I hardly got any activity :/ It makes me wonder if people are scared to post. I think I will use reddit, but I need to do it in a way that's not... so... spammy.

I still have confessions from the old site, I'm thinking about reposting them.

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Originally Posted by louie54

I still have confessions from the old site, I'm thinking about reposting them.

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Do it, it'll make it seem like the website's much more active.

As far as aesthetics are concerned, it looks a little boring. Definitely go with PhilosopherStoned's text color suggestion and then do something about that banner. Things like that can make a world of difference.

Thanks, I just made the small changes he suggested (as far as looks), but it could use some more pzazz.

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Originally Posted by louie54

I think I will use reddit, but I need to do it in a way that's not... so... spammy.

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Wait until you get one that's hilarious or massively wtf, then post it to r/funny or r/wtf, respectively.

ok.... you need a "more" button under each post, instead of having to click on their name thing and see the rest.

oh god who comes up with stuff :shock: I hope its not true or im never getting married!

Spoiler for confession:

my husband pisses me off i have to make his lunch every single day or else he gets all pissy and does stupid shit LIKE leaving shit in the toilet for me to walk in on and be delighted with the fragance and the look of soaking shit!!!
what do i do?!
i dont wipe my crotch after i take my morning piss stick my hand in my pants grab a handful then wipe it on his bread when i make his sandwhich!
lovvve you honey!

:makeitstop:

You guys have been very helpful, I appreciate it :)

Later today when I have more time, I plan on making some of those changes you guys have suggested.