Well, since we're on the topic, this is part of a larger post I've been sitting on in draft for a while as I try to collect various bits and pieces of feedback. Sorry, it's a little blunter than I would normally be or would edit down for tone before posting (but this forum does say you wanted 'brutally honest feedback'
), but seems better to add it to the discussion now rather than at some future point:
Glyph's drafts wrote:I'm afraid I'm also not much of a fan of the taglines (the content, not the idea). I've seen 368 different ones so far, and they range from just... fine, cute, whatever, to pretty cringey tone misses. It'd be less jarring if they were just quietly in the header (or footer, as a page-dressing quote), but they're right up top, in big contrasty C64 text, animated to draw attention to themselves. They're pretty hard to skip over - they literally stand out more than the site name.
"Welcome to the Seibertron bachelor pad."
"We date girls who know what a Pretender shell is."
"We're basically the MAXIM of the multiverse."
... Way to signal who the target demographic is, and by extension who's NOT invited in. As the first thing a visitor sees, and an indication of what using the site is going to be like, I look at this much like an accessibility issue. Aside from generally thinking a fansite should be welcoming to as many people as possible: If you're serious about revamping the fanart / fanfic section, the absolute last thing you want to be doing is telling female fans they'd be entering some kind of dudebrah zone if they signed up.
"Where fanboys become warlords."
"Where bots go to flex and fans come to fight."
"This isn't Cybertron High - we don't play nice."
C'mon, it's not 2005 any more. Most people aren't coming to fan sites looking for a fight, and those who used to have mostly given up and/or found homes somewhere else (but not before chasing away the people who didn't want constant arguments). You've said many times that you don't use the forums much - would you use them more if everyone started yelling at you as soon as you posted anything?
"In a world... where fan sites still have edge."
"The only site with a Matrix of sarcasm."
"Not safe for casuals."
"Do you even Cybertron, bro?"
I'm sorry, this is just embarrassing to see in the header. "Attitude." I'm 46; I don't need my fansite trying to talk to me like a clickbait YouTuber. Turns out "edgy Reddit bro" is a massive turn-off for me as an editorial voice.
So yeah... I like the idea of the random quote in the header/footer and believe it can work / be a nice little detail for users - many of them are fine! - but think it needs to be displayed more subtly and the actual content as currently implemented is a bit of a swing and a miss for me.
