SignatureBar.com Future Enhancements

[tradedemon]

Hi guys,

In preparation for our next big growth Im going to be redesigning the website (It will be the same colours and logo just looking a little fresher), forums and also change the direction of how we are linked on google.

Right now most people find us under userbars or searches related to that. I want to push beyond userbars and make Signaturebar.com the ultimate hang out place and resource for forum and personal profile art work.

Most forums and sites have a section for profile related art work,e.g. avatars, sigs, userbars etc etc, but Signaturebar.com will be the only site on the web dedicated 100% to the design and showcasing of profile related art works.

Some of the improvements I envisage are below:

1.) Having a proper section for tutorials
2.) Upgrading the forums to use VBulletin
3.) Having our own toplist site for profile art related sites.
4.) Having our own directory of profile art related sites.
5.) Having a marketplace for users to sell and buy collections of
unique profile related art work. I envisage this as being more useful to webmasters who want new content/images for their site etc etc We could also use this for normal forum users who want to sell their signature space to a company or website for advertising purposes.. their are many options here and it will have to be seen what happens)
6.) Upgrade our image hosting services to accept a larger range of images.
7.) Add more helper tools and utilities to the site

Ultimately i want us to be a type of authority on this whole area of art and design. I think we can do it, and to be honest there really isnt anyone out there which covers this niche as comprehensively as Im thinking. Most of the communities out there generally cover the more advanced topics and areas of art and design so competition in this are is much less :)

Of course the above items will take time and initially we may well be stuck just doing sigs and userbars but im confident we can build signaturebar.com into a very well respected and powerful brand.

Anyway just thought I'd let everyone know what I was thinking and hopefully if I need any help or ideas I will be sure to let you all know :)

TradeDemon

[noobie]

The Vbulletin is a brilliant idea...there are a lot more little gadgets to play with. I pressume then we will be able to sort posts by such and such order etc, and have a search feature on the site, little things like that, but little being very good :D:D

I particulary like the idea of different file type uploads, will that include uploading slightly larger files, as i have a made quite a few animated ones that ive not been able to submit as theyre too big....not by much i dont think.

I love the rest of the ideas too, will take some time and hard work but will be well worth it in the end. :D

[tradedemon]

Yes larger files will be included too...... :)

As I start each part of the project I will obviously be in touch with the forum members to get feedback and advise.

[MrXile]

First thing is first, the site's name, signaturebar - does not immediately come across as a Graphics Resource Forum, its a shame a new name cant be thought of - with a new domain to go with it, to suit the forward thinking posted above.

It would be advantageous to have a profile/portfolio/showroom site, attached directly with the forum - as in all honesty, someone who is wishing to peruse and perhaps purchase images for whatever reason, be it commerical photography, right down to the lowly net noob who wants a sig/avatar/userbar combination, they dont really want to be trawling a forum first, they want to see the end product first, and then enquire as to how to achieve these images for themselves, or purchase them (edited for their needs of course).

So in essence, first stop is the portfolio part of the website (professionally made of course), and then once they click purchase or if a sig/ava then a `claim your edit` button etc - would direct to a said part of an updated (VB) forum.

All I will sugges to finish off, is that to achieve your dream above Trade, you`ll need a lot of help, and a lot of dedication - and a lot of time spent on the actual layout.

Good luck!

[Ezular]

I like that switching to vbulletin. ill soon be supporting you trade. for financial help on this site hehe when i am working :D tc man

[General_Antilles]

I like this switch to vBulletion alot, I have worked with it before as a moderator on other fourms, its a good system!!

[Dantekain]

Nice...

@ the general...you ain't centerd..... :P

[tradedemon]

Glad to see the interest from everyone :) There pretty big steps but im sure we will get to them in the end.

@Xile: Some good points, see the points below:

1.) I think im going to keep the name because our focus will not be general art & design rather small profile art, hence the word signature is still applicable, plus i dont want to lose the goodwill and backlinks from this domain.

2.) The Marketplace could be run from a forum like it is run from sites like digitalpoint and sitepoint. The idea is for sellers and buyers to list/view the marketplace for deals. Of course for extra exposure a user could always add the items they have in their marketplace in their profile via a link, but the actual sale would have to be made in the marketplace.

There are a few good reasons for this , the main being that selling is always prone to people scamming so having all sales coming from a central location means the staff can keep an eye on whats going on and ban/suspend people that misuse.

3.) Lastly with regards to your main point, Yes the profile page of a user will have to be much more advanced , what it includes, e.g. porftfolio, showoff area etc etc has to be designed and planned, but since Im not anywhere near that stage Im not going to say what its going to include only that it will be much more advanced than the main site profile we have at the moment.

The key decision to be made right now is do we want the site to be forum focussed or do we want to go along the lines of the many social networking sites i.e. offer each user their own complete area with blog, portfolio, friend adding facilities, OR do we want to mix it all up.. Again i havent decided anything with regards to that yet, but feedback and ideas from everyone else will be greatly appreciated..

At the end of the day I really dont want to fix problems I dont have. If the site in its present state offers something which is good i want to keep that aspect of it. If the forums are what makes it successful then I dont really want to break that and make it into a social network type thing.. In the end I presume the site will probably 90% gut feeling stay as a forum with an advanced members profile area... But we can always explore new ideas just for the heck of it.



thanks

[Blayde]

Nice idea for the VB move, lots of places ive sen benefit from it

[tradedemon]

Blayde just out of interest how do sites actually benefit from moving to VB , do more people tend to join VB forums ??

[Blayde]

mostly the benefit is in terms of modifications and the actual ease of use of vBulletin over say phpbb, and the biggest reason im told most of all are the features: http://www.vbulletin.com/features.php

Also, phpbb misses:

- IP Banning
- IP Searching
- Announcements
- User Groups
- Custom Admin-Defined BBCodes
- Replacement Characters
- Ability to Add/Configure Post Icons
- Ability to turn off Bulletin Board
- In depth Registration Options, including the ability to moderate new members
- No COPPA check, which is required on US sites

Also, im told on larger sites, like this thing is going to become, vBulletin is much better at handling the largesse.

Im no expert, but vBulletin has a lot of advantages, and is tweak-easy for some really neat stuff, like skins and the google maps thing :P

[tradedemon]

Great stuff, Im going to look forward to using it then :) Thanks for that explanation Blayde :)

[xBRONCOS]

SOUNDS GREAT TRADEDEMON! THIS SITE HAS ZENITH POTENTIAL

[tradedemon]

thanks for the positive words and its you guys who make the site so great. Im just going to try to support the members and the users as much as I can :) glad you enjoy the site feedback like that just inspires me to work even harder ..

[OGMCVilleTC]

I like the VBulletin move. Even though I'm a new member I think it is a smart move. I am going to be moving the clan I am in to VBulletin sometime after christmas or maybe the first of the year. I haven't decided as it cost money and my pockets are low at the moment. Anyways, great idea. The market place sounds sweet. It could help for server cost or VBulletins fee if you have any. Also I will be looking into the pro design area if you all have one. I will need some skins and banners and such for my website when I get a better one up and going. (such as VBulletin).

[firechameleon]

i like the present colour situation of the website......... all light colours. that helps our work to stick out. i think the name should not be changed. people know us by this name. also, i think the site should remain forum based. v have enough social sites doing rounds............ :)

[tradedemon]

thanks for the feedback rest assured anything that works right now will not be changed.

i.e. the name and the colour scheme will all remain... I might make it look a little more modern and jazz up the logo character abit but everything will probably be very similar...

[bobnot]

site is great just as it is :D

[fiqe]

really old topic....

[xBRONCOS]

wtf! o this is old lol!!!!!!!!!!!

[kota07]

im kinda feeling the site so far

[renegade]

sounds a good idea Xd i have a forums (newly made) thats phbb that has ip banning and show ip really nice..would you have gameing links on your forum like clan/guild web sites/forums think that would attract lot people also to the forums...