Social site we're hoping will be all the buzzz!

Siaram

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Hello fellow x10 members.

A good friend of mine and myself of course started in mid September 2007 to build a social networking site. We realized that there were already many operating, however we had a vision to create a site with some key focal points in mind.

Firstly it had to be extremely user friendly so even your grandparents could find their way around and navigate easily through the various pages, functions and features. Secondly, it had to look professional, enough so that people would take it seriously and not discard it and bounce on first glance. Thirdly it had to be an "Everyone's" site. No one is exempt. Young and old, black or white, straight or gay Chinese or American. Everyone needed to feel welcome and no one should be left out. And finally and yet not least, it needed to be fun and "sticky" enough to keep members wishing to return.

Since September, we have come an extremely long way with just the two of us and are very proud so far of what we have accomplished from the ground up, but realize it will always be a work in progress. For this reason, we seek the wisdom and guidance of some good people to constructively guide us in areas of weakness so we can make fixes to certain issues as well as compliment our strengths so that we may take those particular areas even higher and to the next level.

Some of are features include:

-A private member reminder calendar on every profile page where people can click a day to add an event or reminder. After submitting it will highlight the specified day and reveal the reminder in a balloon upon mouseover as well as email the member 24 hours before to remind them they have an event coming up the next day.

-The "Trading Post" which is a place where members can buy or sell items directly from their profile page to other iBuzzz members within their own country or nation. Complete with description/price and picture if available. This feature will be expanded to global sales should it become popular within the site.

-i-Spy, a feature to reveal the last 20 members to view your profile page as well as a "stealth mode" that will block the i-Spy feature for sensitive members who like to lurk or appear offline.

-Template color chooser to select the color that best suits a members mood or preference.

-An auto updating live chatbox we built from scratch showing ava's of last 18 members to use it and custom selected smiley's members can utilize at the click of a button.

-Many rooms for specific topics. "The Stage" for music related content. "The Arcade" for game related content. Even "The Catacombs" for adult or R-Rated 18 and up content.

-Global chat. A place where people can pick a selection of 20 different nationalities to speak with their fellow countrymen/woman complete with an English and Native tongue rss updating news headline for that country. Well we have the English now. The native tongue news will be there within a week for those countries to which it applies like Russia, Philllpines, Brazil etc...

-And of course it come chalk full of all the other features you would expect in a social site such as Buddy alerts, a "Scratchpad" for members to post videos, music, and text on their profiles, gifts sending, and more.

So that being said and sorry it was so long winded, we really wish to hear your feedback. And keep in mind, we have set the site up so that people can't experience 90% of the features without logging in. We wanted basically to force people to join so that they didn't just see a chatbox and figure that was it. Once they join, all the options, features and functionality open up to them. And also bare in mind this was all done by only 2 people. We don't have a "team" of developers, designers, graphics artist and the sort. :)

We appreciate your comments and look very much forward to hearing what you have to say.

Regards,
Vision and Siaram
iBuzzzz Admins and Owners.
 
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Siaram

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Not one person could critique my site? I reviewed six when I first made my post. Surely, at least those I reviewed and gave advice to could have a look no? I would really appreciate it.
 

hopper

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interesting concept
is it a commercial script, open source script or custom coded
your color theme is aesthetically pleasing
your main menu is a bit.. spartain i would also reccomend putting the links either
more centralized or over to the far left, however they are decent where they are as well
 

rlodge

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From what I can see, it looks like a professional site (although the member with the "I Love Porn" avatar is not something I want my grandparents / kids to see). Seeing that on the registration page tells me that the 18+ (adult) area is probably not as controlled as it should be if there will be people of all ages there

Unfortunately, there isn't much else to see unless you become a member.
 

Siaram

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Thanks a lot guys for the input. Uhhhm, yes you can't really appreciate it without registering but then most social sites are like that. Sorry Hopper, call me green, but what do you mean by spartain? Thanks. :)

Yes the "I love porn" didn't need to be there perhaps but I see a lot worse on facebook and myspace, so still thankful that is it for now. Anyone 14 or over won't even bat an eye at that. They've seen way worse.

What links do you mean Hopper? There are quite a few. The rooms? They are already far left. Or do you mean top menu?

thanks again guys.

P.S. Sorry. The site is custom coded. The reminder calendar, the auto refresh chatbox, everything was done from scratch. Well except the polls and a couple widgets. We didn't want to use other calendars and chat or whatnot cuz then they want to place their ads or links all over YOUR site. Not gonna happen at iBuzzz. And ads you find are ours. ;) Better to take a few days to a week and code something from scratch then to be lazy and use anothers and let them profit from your guests. Coming soon is Multi-Member Texas Holdem' Poker and a cool members game where people can be anything from an assasin to thief or bounty hunter etc..and can fight and attack other members. We have some pretty grandiose ideas gonna be implemented really soon.
 
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hopper

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sorry
when i say spartain i mean little content and alot of empty space
and i was refering to the menu bar links 'loby' 'explore' and 'honey pot'
i would reccomend moving them to the far left of the bar and see how it looks, if you prefer them where they are it works however, if that is possilble.
 
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Siaram

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Oh ok, thank you and point well takn. Maybe a couple pics next to search options just to make it look a little busier.

Uhmmm, the honey Pot? Well I really have to get more contests and promos for that, but again I could prolly add some pics representing some contests or something uh? Cool and thanks, I apreciate the feedback. ;)


OHHHHHHHhhhhhh.... I think I know what you mean now. The unlogged looks to sparsely populated on top menu? Well That's why I keep telling people it's no good if they don't log in. Here is screenshot of unlogged and logged in.

UNLOGGED
5cy98y.png



Here is logged in



And LOGGED in:
2zq5s9i.png


Quite the difference, however I know what you mean so will fill the top menu EVEN if members aren't logged in. I'll just make them see links but tell them to register before they will work. haha ;)
 
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VPmase

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Wow. If you really did code all that good job. Looks like a pro CMS to me.
 

Siaram

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Thank you :)

Been working a lot on it. I'm quite proud of what we achieved so far, and I've learn a lot to do it and we got a lot of ideas to add and so on.
 

delon

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I did not like your social network Siaram, not so great color scheme used, not many features a normal internet portal has, and some text and banners looks quite too cheap to me ( I HATE PORN ).

Overall Rating : 1 /10
Since you built a site , that is why a 1, not that good ( in terms of internet portal ).
 

tektrnica

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contry to the above post, the colour scheme is very good, if the guy knew anything about the meanings of colour, black gives off an air off professionalism if used correctly. Ok so its not "feature" rich but it works, and if it is indeed coded by hand, very damn well.

Well done.
 

Nathan H

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i like the overall colour scheme of the site, though the brown cork board does ruin the overall theme, site looks good overall and easy anvigation, just a warning, check what users are putting as there profile picture because at the momnent, you have a large I LOVE Pr0n on your homepage.
 
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Siaram

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Thanks guys for the input. The "Ilove porn" avatar is being removed and replaced with a generic one. As for the color scheme, well not sure if anyone tried but right below the login boxes at top left is a dropdown window where people can choose the template color of their choice.

The cork board, I agree does not seem to fit well with the feel of the site. Gonna change that today to something basic and maybe black perhaps so it fits with all the colored templates we have,

Thanks for the input folks. :)
 

dwd2000

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Very nice.
"Busy" sites, in my opinion, should be wider, and the content spread out a little. I'm on Facebook, and a few others, and also have a site like this of my own. I suggest you don't make it as diluted as Facebook. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple silly)

Good luck.
 

Siaram

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Thanks dwd,

We actually had it less wide before so it's a lot wider now (depending on your resolution of course) but if it gets any wider we may need the whole screen and want to keep it a little compact if possible.
 
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