zabox.net - Social Networking with style

[crazyleaf]

zaBox Social Network (http://www.zabox.net) is an online social networking website built around the individual. The main focus is you, the member, what you like to do, what you like to listen to, what events you like to go to, what defines you.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z279/crazyleaf/zabox-article.jpg

Here’s a list of some of the features :

* Audio / Video Messenger with text formatting, smilesets and file sharing
* Audio Video Chat
* Music Player
* Internet Radio organized by music genre
* Video Player
* zaBox Boards, a new way to express yourself
* Web Presence
* phpBB community forum
* Customizable profile view
* Invite / tell a friend with Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, MSN and Hotmail automated import funtion.
* New members (auto-displaying of photos of latest registered users on the main page)
* “Online/Offline” user status
* Personal Media Gallery (audio, video and pictures albums and categories)
* Personal Blog
* Friends List
* Guestbook
* Events
* Classifieds
* Gmail Like Mailbox Conversations Archive
* Speed dating events subscription
* Top-rated profiles lookup
* Newsletter
* Automatic photos upload system
* Password-protected members’ photos
* Messenger with storing system
* Media (video and audio support for profiles)
* Configurable Flash-based online live-chat system
* HotList (buddies, favorites)
* Block members (members can block all correspondence from certain members)
* Support of A/V Instant Messenger and A/V Chat by Ray Web Multimedia Software

Probably the most important feature is that is spam-free, and 100% safe (a member doesn’t have direct access to your email address).

We hope to see you on zaBox (http://www.zabox.net).

Waiting for your opinions ....

[USA]

It's a very nice, send me PM via icq if you want to sell this website :)

[netpox]

Nice site, clean and professional! I also have a new social network. Feel free to PM me and we can exchange links for seo purposes.

Good luck!

[Lhlalyam]

Hello CrazyLeaf

I had a chance to go through your site tonight. Looks like you've been quite busy lately with this site.

My Thoughts

Domain Name
Nice name... easy to remember and catchy!

Logo
I like the logo. Very well designed. I think that it would be good to use it somewhere in your template... in a larger view... so that people can see what the logo is.

Template
I love the color scheme you went with on your site template. It seems to be balanced on the 3 browsers I tested it on.

Snow
The snow seems to freeze in the middle of the pages in Opera. It makes the screen jagged in FireFox when you are scrolling. In Internet Explorer it seems fine... but I found it peculiar because the snow fell in the left rather than the right... which happened in the other two browsers.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/899/zabox2ik7.jpg

Navigation
I'd recommend that you have a flat menu system rather than a dynamic system. I've found that users get easily confused when needing to learn how to use a dynamic menu system.

I also found that your dynamic menu system gets stuck open when activated. Even when I click around on the site... it continues to stay open. In Internet Explorer... this dynamic menu looks grey rather than the transparent black like in the other browsers.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/2827/zaboxeg8.jpg

zaBox Games page
when you go to the games page... the template changes. Is it possible to integrate the games page within your original template?

Conclusion
When I first opened the site... it took about 2 minutes to open in FireFox... about 1 minute in Opera... but Internet Explorer was about 30secs.

Your site is good... but I think it needs a few touchups.... good job!

This review was done with 3 web browsers (FireFox 2.0.0.9, Internet Explorer 6.02 & Opera 9.24) on Windows XP SP2.

I do hope this is helpful,
Respectfully,
Lhlalyam

[crazycatsville]

Why not have a (dot)com domain name? The look is good to. I'm checking it with FF. Best of luck!

[shell101]

Put the yellow border on the left side on the right side too. It looks better balanced.

[crazyleaf]

Thank you very much for this great and quite complete review. You highlighted very well the issues we are working on. About the snow .. I noticed the problems and removed the script but at the request of most members I re-enabled it.

About the menu system ... the website has too much options and sections for a flat menu system. Indeed that menu system would have been prefered, but it's not quite possible for us. For the games page we are working on the template as well as adding more games every day.

About the loading time .. this is quite disturbing. We (the owners) use a high speed broadband and didn't notice that problem. Thanks for pointing that out. Is anyone having the same problem with the loading ?

Hello CrazyLeaf

I had a chance to go through your site tonight. Looks like you've been quite busy lately with this site.

My Thoughts

Domain Name
Nice name... easy to remember and catchy!

Logo
I like the logo. Very well designed. I think that it would be good to use it somewhere in your template... in a larger view... so that people can see what the logo is.

Template
I love the color scheme you went with on your site template. It seems to be balanced on the 3 browsers I tested it on.

Snow
The snow seems to freeze in the middle of the pages in Opera. It makes the screen jagged in FireFox when you are scrolling. In Internet Explorer it seems fine... but I found it peculiar because the snow fell in the left rather than the right... which happened in the other two browsers.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/899/zabox2ik7.jpg

Navigation
I'd recommend that you have a flat menu system rather than a dynamic system. I've found that users get easily confused when needing to learn how to use a dynamic menu system.

I also found that your dynamic menu system gets stuck open when activated. Even when I click around on the site... it continues to stay open. In Internet Explorer... this dynamic menu looks grey rather than the transparent black like in the other browsers.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/2827/zaboxeg8.jpg

zaBox Games page
when you go to the games page... the template changes. Is it possible to integrate the games page within your original template?

Conclusion
When I first opened the site... it took about 2 minutes to open in FireFox... about 1 minute in Opera... but Internet Explorer was about 30secs.

Your site is good... but I think it needs a few touchups.... good job!

This review was done with 3 web browsers (FireFox 2.0.0.9, Internet Explorer 6.02 & Opera 9.24) on Windows XP SP2.

I do hope this is helpful,
Respectfully,
Lhlalyam

The dot com name ... I searched about 2 weeks for a proper, short, catchy and easy to remember name and most were already taken. I would have liked very much youz.com or yoz.net (yoz = youth only zone) but it wasn't available. Eventually I came up with zabox and we all liked it and decided to go with the .net since the .com wasn't available. After all zabox is a network.

Why not have a (dot)com domain name? The look is good to. I'm checking it with FF. Best of luck!

[FindASocialNetwork]

Hi,

I had a look. Looks cool. Has potential.
Feel free to submit it to our search engine for social networks with relevant keywords. Register, then submit your site for free.

http://findasocialnetwork.com

[microbrain]

WOW - Really Looking Great!
Design is good - opening fine In FireFOx - Loading time is OK !
Best of Luck!

[spamyboy]

What script do this website use ?

[crazyleaf]

Hi,

I had a look. Looks cool. Has potential.
Feel free to submit it to our search engine for social networks with relevant keywords. Register, then submit your site for free.

http://findasocialnetwork.com

I've added to your directory.

[TheVccMatey]

If you plan on sticking with this seriously, then I suggest a better server. It's kind of slow. But sexy design :D

[annjordan]

Nice site but it doesn't really pull me to sign up and use it, don't know why. 4-1/2 stars.

[tapanp]

looking Good . MAke it more like Professional..

[chopsticks]

Nice looking site. Is it custom made software? - (didn't see a mention of whether not it was in your OP).

I had a quick browse around before and will probably try it out a little more and give you my thoughts about your site. But having it spam free is a very good feat as all MySpace seems to be nowadays is spam.

The site also loaded pretty fast, not taking a while as others have said.

[Pandy123]

very nice design... but im sure I saw that site stats somewhe... ahh ick bon wizzle is that boonex dolphin your using ?! :| I hope you paid them alot else your site will be analed by some turkish hacker.

[valgreece]

-site loading was too long for my adsl 10mb
-too sexxy girls on front page
IMHO

[DuValEnterprises]

the script/software he's using is Boonex Dolphin social networking package.

check out my Dolphin site:
http://www.WriteInYourVote.com

[industryprinting]

The site is ok, but i dont understand why you have the pictures of those girls on the home page... People need a reason to go to your site... you need some more content that is going to want to make users sign up... Right now there is nothing compelling me to join.. you might want to work on that "WOW" factor a bit more... Change the navigation to a static navigation..

Good Luck

[expertmateur]

cool website. may i know what social network script you use?

[chopsticks]

2 posts up, you should check through the thread better if at all. :P

the script/software he's using is Boonex Dolphin social networking package.

[SGFB]

Wow.. like it even before I take a look.. must be the "nature" of the site

Yep.. it is kind of slow...

[Pandy123]

the script/software he's using is Boonex Dolphin social networking package.

check out my Dolphin site:
http://www.WriteInYourVote.com

hmmm, good luck with that. I hear support is terrible and the whole script is full of holes!

[Tatiana1211]

Great one!!

But could not get one thing....why is the focus of a social network "you" instead of "we"?