Boston Legal Source

[JackTripper]

[a href=\"http://crane-poole-schmidt.com\" target=\"_blank\"]http://crane-poole-schmidt.com[/a]

Fansite for ABC hit Boston Legal, from award winning producer David E. Kelley (Picket Fences, Ally McBeal), with an all star cast including James Spader, William Shatner and Candice Bergen.

Boston Legal Source includes Forums, Galleries, Episode Guide and Cast Bios.

All feedback appreciated.

[frustrated]

You sound like a commercial...

The header looks pretty good to me...then there's the stupid google ads...I'm so sick of seeing those...they ruin sites.

Then everything below looks like something straight out of phpbb or some templated type of thing.

[JackTripper]

Well we use a custom CMS, but should we be displaying news differently? Or each post differently, I don't really see creative range there.

[frustrated]

To me it just looks really generic....like the old default invision template...or something like that. I would try and find a more original skin for you cms system or have somone create one for you.

[JackTripper]

OK. Thanks.

I will try break the mold :)

[steviewdr]

Its broken a bit in IE 6, compared to firefox.
The "Next Episode" is different to "Latest Episodes" - they dont line up and look offputting.

Overall - very BLAND colours. I would like to see some rounded edges, and larger text. - THE TEXT IS REALLY SMALL.
On your top horizontal nav - the onmouseover images are slow in replacing.

As mentioned - the google ads totally muckup the website.

There is WAY too much options/actions for each news item. In some cases the actions - seed etc. are more than the Article!!

Whats with the ads - Please take a moment to visit our sponsor. You will be redirected to [a href=\"http://crane-poole-schmidt.com/episodeguide/\" target=\"_blank\"]http://crane-poole-schmidt.com/episodeguide/[/a] in 3 seconds.

What rubbish. Anyways - works but I dont like it.

The FORUMS button on the horizontal nav brings me to Donations! - what a suprise!

Anyways - its a little bland IMO. More colours, images, and larger text.

Rgds,
Steve

[JackTripper]

I have lowered the links invovled with news posts.

The chance of getting the donation page is now a lot lower as is the chance of an intersitial ad.

I don't understand what the Google Ads do though?

[steviewdr]

Right - when I click on the FORUMS button on the top - it takes me to the donation page - thats ok. WHAT I DIDNT SEE was the TINY text saying "Continue to the Forums" -> this should be another button like the "Make a Donation" button IMO. Its just that I barely saw the "continue...." link.

The Latest/ Next Eposide divs - are improved - but still broken in IE.
ScreenGrab -> [a href=\"http://kartbuilding.net/misc/boston.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"]http://kartbuilding.net/misc/boston.jpg[/a]
It just looks very off putting.

As for the google ads - well change the appearance/colour of them. If they had the same bland & light colour as you have the website - they wouldnt be as noticeable.
You have also too much top and bottom padding around the google ads.
Move up the Main DIV closer to the google ads.
Your Navigation Menu looks VERY basic and PLAIN. Get a background image or something in there. Bullets even.

P.S. A small and neat Google Ads, as I have on [a href=\"http://www.kartbuilding.net/\" target=\"_blank\"]http://www.kartbuilding.net/[/a] is all that is required, rather than a huge div with colours etc. I must remove the google search however - it doesnt do much.

Rgds,
Steve

[JackTripper]

Thanks.

I have made the 'redirect' text a lot bigger and changed the colors of the Google Ads.

I will work on the padding issue as well as smaller ads - but the current design is built for leaderboards and displaying leaderboards from one company and small ads from another cause inconsistency.

I have also nipped the homepage problem in the bud :)

[jcombs_31]

wow, another one of these sites by you. How many TV shows are you gonna make the same exact fan site for?

[JackTripper]

[!--quoteo(post=380167:date=Jun 5 2006, 06:37 AM:name=jcombs_31)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(jcombs_31 @ Jun 5 2006, 06:37 AM) [snapback]380167[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]
wow, another one of these sites by you. How many TV shows are you gonna make the same exact fan site for?
[/quote]
Exact same?

I think all TV shows are different ;)

As for how many sites I'll make - until I run out of webspace :P

I believe they are all pretty different and the ones coming up will be running a different CMS system so no worries there.

[jcombs_31]

I'm not referring to the shows being different. I don't have the links to the past sites you've made, but from memory they are all very similar. Are you just a fan of these shows, why do you keep making these sites (I'm just curious).