New site for gun enthusiasts.
May 27, 2010 9:28 PM Subscribe
New site for gun enthusiasts.
I just soft launched a new website that caters to gun enthusiasts. I am interested in getting some feedback from you guys. Hopefully by next week we will have the rest of the bugs worked out and can start promoting it.
I just soft launched a new website that caters to gun enthusiasts. I am interested in getting some feedback from you guys. Hopefully by next week we will have the rest of the bugs worked out and can start promoting it.
That's a crazy great URL and the site looks great. When I'm mousing around a lot of the front page, the "view more" tab on the auctions keeps sort of shifting up and down and it's a little weird, like the auctions seem to appear and disappear from the main page and then the slidey thing just goes up and down but there's nothing there. OSX/FF.
Thanks! The shifting up and down issue will disappear after there are something like 10 live auctions. Let me know if you see anything else that seems odd/broken.
posted by Mr_Zero at 9:46 PM on May 27, 2010
Thanks! The shifting up and down issue will disappear after there are something like 10 live auctions. Let me know if you see anything else that seems odd/broken.
posted by Mr_Zero at 9:46 PM on May 27, 2010
jessamyn is right: how on earth did you snag that URL?! It's an SEO's perfect dream...
Anyway, quick thought: On the auctions page, it's not obvious to me at first sight that the "Categories" tab is actually a drop down menu. You can find out by hovering with the mouse of course, so it's not the end of the world.
I'm also getting the 'brief flash of unstyled content' (FF3.5.9) on the homepage, but that might be unavoidable.
posted by pharm at 1:45 AM on May 29, 2010
Anyway, quick thought: On the auctions page, it's not obvious to me at first sight that the "Categories" tab is actually a drop down menu. You can find out by hovering with the mouse of course, so it's not the end of the world.
I'm also getting the 'brief flash of unstyled content' (FF3.5.9) on the homepage, but that might be unavoidable.
posted by pharm at 1:45 AM on May 29, 2010
jessamyn is right: how on earth did you snag that URL?! It's an SEO's perfect dream...
I was lucky and was able to purchase it.
I'm also getting the 'brief flash of unstyled content' (FF3.5.9) on the homepage, but that might be unavoidable.
I am using FF 3.6.3 and can not recreate it, but thank you. I will have the other guys test it also.
posted by Mr_Zero at 11:52 AM on May 29, 2010
I was lucky and was able to purchase it.
I'm also getting the 'brief flash of unstyled content' (FF3.5.9) on the homepage, but that might be unavoidable.
I am using FF 3.6.3 and can not recreate it, but thank you. I will have the other guys test it also.
posted by Mr_Zero at 11:52 AM on May 29, 2010
Hmm, you need to add some forums to the empty "Forums" area sooner rather than later, and start seeding posts into them, since people are going to be landing at the site as a result of searches and it's the community aspect, rather than other features, that's most likely to get them to register and then stick around for any appreciable period of time
posted by killdevil at 3:05 PM on May 29, 2010
posted by killdevil at 3:05 PM on May 29, 2010
Looks pretty nice and I've definitely bookmarked, although I'm honestly not sure if I were you that I would have created the forum part just yet. Starting up a new site with a forum can be pretty hard and if you create empty forums seeded with posts it can get very Potemkin villagey very fast. Not saying it can't be done, just that it's hard and there are already a lot of gun forums around.
If it were me (and it's not, clearly) I'd probably think about building content or some other sort of unique feature first and then adding the forum component only when it's really clear that there's demand; there's nothing more depressing than an empty forum. Underutilized social features are worse than no social features at all.
Maybe there's some sort of cross-promotion that you could do with an existing gun forum rather than reinventing the wheel with your own? If you weren't in direct competition with them for the forum/social component, maybe you could tie in with one of them a little, since you'd be offering the auction part...? Not sure how parochial other forums are though.
Anyway, great project and very nice design — I think you just need to figure out what is going to make your site different from other gun enthusiast sites (is it the nice design? the auction component? real-world / social interaction?) and work the hell out of that angle to differentiate it.
(I would honestly be cautious spending too much time/effort on design since, if any other popular sites are an indication, gun enthusiasts seem happy enough spending lots of time on boards that look like they fell out of the wrong end of Netscape 3.0. But that said it's a very nice-looking site.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:47 PM on June 14, 2010
If it were me (and it's not, clearly) I'd probably think about building content or some other sort of unique feature first and then adding the forum component only when it's really clear that there's demand; there's nothing more depressing than an empty forum. Underutilized social features are worse than no social features at all.
Maybe there's some sort of cross-promotion that you could do with an existing gun forum rather than reinventing the wheel with your own? If you weren't in direct competition with them for the forum/social component, maybe you could tie in with one of them a little, since you'd be offering the auction part...? Not sure how parochial other forums are though.
Anyway, great project and very nice design — I think you just need to figure out what is going to make your site different from other gun enthusiast sites (is it the nice design? the auction component? real-world / social interaction?) and work the hell out of that angle to differentiate it.
(I would honestly be cautious spending too much time/effort on design since, if any other popular sites are an indication, gun enthusiasts seem happy enough spending lots of time on boards that look like they fell out of the wrong end of Netscape 3.0. But that said it's a very nice-looking site.)
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:47 PM on June 14, 2010
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posted by jessamyn at 9:40 PM on May 27, 2010