As a new user I must say I find that I never use the front page and am a bit unclear as to why there is a separate Front page and Diary section.  The Open threads and European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch are the sort of more informal stuff you would expect to find in a diary section.

The Home and Frontpage sections of most websites are the shop window which highlight all the main features, important stuff, site maps, tables of content, and semi permanent content which is used for navigation around the site.  It should give an overview of the scope and content of the site and be visually appealing, intellectual stimulating, and emotionally exciting!!!!!

At the moment it looks awful, is very wordy, fussy, content rich but confusing and with an awful lot of Klatsch which is great if you're an ET groupie but a little bit strange and off putting to the new or casual visitor who is wondering what the site is all about and what resources and functionality the site has to offer.  Is it a chat site or a serious intellectual resource?  (Of course it's both, but the chat itself shouldn't be on the front page -  a link would suffice to emphasise the participative community nature of the site).

It comes across as very interactive, which is great, but it is difficult to separate the chat from the really authoritative, serious stuff, which perhaps explains why (if) ET isn't taken very seriously by MSM.

Otherv features which would be of interest is on-line stats of page hits per day, who is currently online, number of unique users per day etc. because otherwise it is hard to tell whether it is a site for a couple of dozen inveterate hobbyists or a serious and widespread community.

Otherwise its just great!


Index of Frank's Diaries