After looking through many topics in the 'Web Site, Forum & Chat Group Announcements', I noticed arguing and flaming about websites.

Reading some members posts, who were commenting on others' websites, have directly insulted the advertising member or given extremely bad reviews. Although their are lots of newbs at website creation, whose sites many lack decoration, layout and content, I believe we should be more incouraging with the feedback. Yes, the main point of the forum is to give feedback to advertised sites, but maybe a little less of the insulting?

Possibly, some users should think about some main points before posting their topic:
Does the site have a purpose?
Is the site ready to advertise?
Does the site have some content available?

To no extent am I a pro web designer, but I have had various comments on my websites, and im PM's from members who love my site, has a purpose, and has a great design. I have received constructive critisism to my effort, which has helped my further in web creation.

To make my point here, I am not saying these should be the new rules for the web advertising catergory, but please can you consider your words before speaking, which may affect the owner of the site.

A lot of people view what an insult is differently than others... i mean, saying something negative about a site is insulting to some people, and they start getting defensive, which just results in a flame war.

I would suggest people who post sites here realise that it is going to get critisized before they post... and dont try to defend you site, it only makes you look stupid. Try to take on board peoples comments.

I VERY rarely give positive comments about websites, as most of the time on the GMC, there realy isnt anything nice to say... unless you are trying to be kind to them.

I agree to a certain extent.

More sites are now becoming more "professional" looking at the GMC, which is the target group I aimed for. I believe I have been fairly successful with this, and as you have commented in my topic catdaemon, I have taken your advice on board, and edited my site accordingly.

This is what some members need to realise. With no graphics, font set as times new roman, and no content, what feedback are you supposed to give? You wouldn't give a great review, because the site would need to be improved quite a bit.

Although, with the professional, and purposeful sites, greater comments should be made. If the site has a purpose, more members would stop by and join.

If somebodies website is crap, they have a right to know. Mostly it's not like your flaming them. If I see a site thats crap, I say so. Its not like I have anything against the person. But if it looks terrible, they will get a really bad review. Of course I always try to tell them how to make it better. But if the review is negative, it only turns into a flame war when the topic creator is dumb and fights back, instead of being like "I appreciate your opinion but what about blah blah blah" and stuff.

well I'm gessing you never try to be "kind to" me! lol
Ya I had a flame war with you sevral times.
but man guys lay off the mean coments. And I got my point acrouss when diffending my forum they sayed somthing about use using "gay" in a hurtfull way but they never stoped to think why the topic was closed. And a forum called "anything is possible" some one called that a cheesee name... Now come on people if your going to start a flame with someone then at least do it right I meen come on! LOL
well I'm over that now but it hurts

yes, quite true. but it would only be usefull if there were a few noobs around.
the problem is that there are too many pwople that post these utterly bad wevsites, and it is hard to provide constructive criticism for each and every one. i mean seriously, browse through the forum. about 90% are freewebs templates, and 10% are people that actually tried. in my opinion, it should be against the rules to ask for a review about a template-based site, because all reveiws would have an extensive amount of critisism in them.
the 10% of the people who tried are the ones who deserve a review, bacause they CAN improve, but receive no help because they are buried by the noobs.

get my point?

No sense, that statement made.

Skilzat99x, I agree with your first post totally. A point I was trying to get across - members need to take the reviewers advice, and act on that to create a better site.

GMmaster, your post was difficult to understand, but your problem was your website. catdaemon comments on many websites, and as he says, not many are at a great standard. Maybe you should look at improving your site first.

And yes, I agree with you to ShadowStrike32.

I say: Dont advertise in other peoples topics, use your own.

Edit: above post was deleted

Honesty is always good, but sometimes we can be too blunt. We should remember that for beginners, even using a template can be an achievement.

The truth can hurt, but even the truth can be attractively packaged.

If you've given someone constructive criticism and he "fights back", you should ignore him. Flame extinguished. Period.

I'm not saying templates are no good, I suppose most beginners use a template to start out with, unless they're prepared to learn html coding, or buy a decent WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get, for beginners) editor.

And I think KC LC deleted GMmaster's post, as he was trying to advertise his site. I checked it out though, and it certainly has a better design than before.

It was me who deleted his post. Basicly a blatant topic hijack to get people to go to his improved forum.

"A lot of people view what an insult is differently than others... i mean, saying something negative about a site is insulting to some people, and they start getting defensive, which just results in a flame war.

I would suggest people who post sites here realise that it is going to get critisized before they post... and dont try to defend you site, it only makes you look stupid. Try to take on board peoples comments."

Yea true definitly. But there is a time to get deffencive. I had a game that I had posted a couple of days ago. One guy says that he hates my game because the graphics stink. Then he goes on to say that he did not even try my game! How is that suppose to make me feal? One guy said "you need some mroe shading on the ghosts" Now that is acceptable because he did not just say it completely stunk and he gave me info on how to fix it. Also he did not say he did not play it wich also made me feal good.

We are talking about websites, not games. There is quite a large difference...

Thanks then Jodder.

And yes, there is a big difference between websites and games, partly because games take a lot more effort to build than even the best websites, ususally

Giving reasons for the critisism will help the creator to improve. Trouble is, some users do take that advice as an insult, which results in a flame war. But we should have solved that one now.

Just maybe, members should think about the type of site they have created - included decoration or content where necessary? If not, then expect your site to be critisied. Try not to take all too much, before learning the basics.

The whole forum needs (unreasonable) insulting to be stopped......