I thought this forum does not allow advertising. My initial reaction was to report the post as spam

Anonymous wrote:Well, I guess I came to wrong site for helpful test-driving of a chat feature we just installed for adoptive parents.... Sorry to trouble you with a different... color....? We were not asking for blog critiques. A spam site? Wow. Some actually think that diversity is good.

Well, getting defensive makes you sound really professional. Do you run the blog or are you just an employee or consultant who decided to ruin its reputation?

Well, I guess I came to wrong site for helpful test-driving of a chat feature we just installed for adoptive parents.... Sorry to trouble you with a different... color....? We were not asking for blog critiques. A spam site? Wow. Some actually think that diversity is good.

Looks like a fake spam site. Agree the black background could be contributing. The ads at the very top and no clear "header" is also a large factor.

Web address is also awful - find something shorter!

Thanks for sharing. It's been a successful web blog for a number of years (BlogHer likes the thousands of hits each week), but I would tend to agree that a lighter background is easier for some to read. We are asking for input of those willing to try the chat function, which had some glitches, but are now being worked out. Not everyone is willing to try new things, and the chat is brand new, so we were looking for upbeat guinea pigs.

This is a very hard to read website, I won't be back. Why is it so dark and just not very appealing to read? Just super ugly design. Sorry,
were you looking for feedback or just telling us about your website. I think you should look a the design of successful websites to see
what works.

Did you know that dark backgrounds with light writing appeal to teenagers? I don't know any teenager adoptive parents. In fact most of the
adoptive parents I know are older and this design is a real turnoff.

Our blog site is test-driving some chat forum features and we need adoptive parents for input. Questions are starting to come in and it would help to hear from APs who have BTDT to give some ideas in response. Today there is a simple tutorial about how to log-in, since there are a few glitches that we're working on, but it's basically pretty user-friendly. Feel free to stop by at: www.destinationsdreamsanddogs.com. Thanks!