Ivandis – Review Spotlight
Full Review by Lucky!
You can access Ivandis to see for yourself what it looks like, by clicking here.
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (18 out of 20)
When I first look at Ivandis, the first thing I noticed was the logo and the overall look of the theme, both of which were well done and looks like it took time to get right, which I commend you on. When I do full reviews, I like to break the impressions and appearance sections apart to make things a little easier to read and follow. So, let's start off with the header.
Header and Navigation
As I commented on already, the logo is very nicely done and looks professional. I like what you did with the "I" with the sword instead of the letter, very attentive to detail. Looking over to the navigation links, I see some links that are appropriate for the game, and not so much for the forum itself, which I really like. The hover over effects are a nice touch, again, very attentive to detail. However, the "Shoutbox" link leads to an error message, probably because you have it set so guests cannot see/use it, which I can understand. However, If it was meant to be like that, you should remove the link from guests.
Guest Message
Reading the guests message, it looks very generic. If I didn't read the description of your OP, I wouldn't have known what Ivandis was. Now, that could have something to with my lack of knowledge of Runescape, however, I won't be the only guest on Ivandis that may not know what the forum is about. If you give a little bit of information on what you are and what the features are of registering, guests that don't already about it won't want to register and learn. You are never sure, your website may make someone want to learn more and play the game, but they don't know much, kind of like me.
Overall Content
After looking at the header and the guest message, the rest of the theme is just as nice. Normally, I am not a huge fan of dark themes, however, I really like what you have going on here. The colors are really nice together and are soft on the eyes. A lot of the time, people with dark themes have really bright text colors that make looking at the theme hurt, however, not on Ivandis. I really like the background that you have chosen as well because it just sets the tone for the main theme and just ties everything together. Overall, I am very impressed so far, let 's go on!
Site Layout – (18 out of 20)
Beginning, navigating Ivandis is very smooth, which is a big deal to capture a guest's attention. Navigation links lead to where they are supposed to and do so in a quick manner. Looking at the actual forums, I like the layout. The layout of the boards is logical and what I really like is the amount of forums are just right in compassion of the amount of posts you have. The one thing that I did notice was "Player Support" really doesn't have enough posts inside of it to warrant its own category, maybe move it inside the "Ivandis" category would make more sense? Doing so would leave four categories, which are perfect. The sidebar looks nice too, with the hooks that I would expect from an IPB powered board. However, near the bottom, there is some wasted space that could be utilized to display some more content. You could possibly make a "Top Player" hook or a "Random Topic" hook to expand the sidebar and offer more content to fill that gap. Other than that, I really can't say much more because the content on Ivandis is amazing and I just can't stop thinking about how meticulous the theme and layout are.
While looking at some of your forum descriptions, I feel they are lacking length and a good enough explanation of each forum.A good rule of thumb is descriptions should be at 2-3 sentences long and give a good enough idea of what the forum is about without the user having to click the forum to find out. What you have now isn't bad, but could definitely be worked on to add more length and quality.
Statistics and Activity – (18 out of 20)
Looking over the averages of Ivandis, things are looking nice, noting you've only been open for 55 days. Let's throw down some numbers shall we.
- You have been open for 55 days and you have 9,953 posts. That equates out to 180 posts per day from your members. That's a great number to start out with, really it is!
- Currently, you have 228 registered users since you've been open, which results in 4 users registering per day since opening. Again, that is a nice number, especially due to the niche, which is narrow.
- This is where things look really nice. You have 9,953 posts and 228 users, averaging that out comes to 44 posts per registered user. Again, a really nice number to have this early in opening. Keep that up!
- Adding today's posts up, it comes out to 84 posts, 20% of which were posted by LordMinix.
- Adding up the staffs post totals, it comes out to 1,135, which is 11% of the overall 9,953 posts. Now, this can be a double edged sword here. Seeing a number like 11% is nice because it shows the other 89% of the community are the ones supporting the discussions, not just the staff. However, you also want to make sure that your staff are doing their part as well to post. To achieve this, normally a number around 20% is a good line to draw when it comes to overall staff participation. However, where you are now numbers wise is a really nice start and if you can keep this numbers up, you are on a track of success.
Content – (14 out of 20)
I can't go too much into detail in this section primarily because Ivandis isn't supposed to be a forum, more a game. Therefore, I wouldn't expect the forums to be littered with general discussion topics and such. However, the posts that I have looked through looked good and of good quality. Like I said, I can't go too far in ratings here just because of the usage of your forum, but overall, good job.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (16 out of 20)
Overall, this section does really well on Ivandis. There really isn't much to look over mainly because you have a lot of user generated content, which is subjective in itself when it comes to quality. However, regarding your "Vote" page, I did find a few things. Suggestions to the page will be edited in blue.
// Why should you vote?
If you enjoy the server, and want the server to continue running with a fair amount of activity, you should vote daily so we get higher up the RuneScape private server lists. By getting higher up these lists, people are more likely to join, thus making our server more and more popular!
// What do I get out of it?
Well for a start, no one likes to play a server by themselves! So, by voting you'll be helping us but also helping yourself because the more players there are, the more fun it is for you!
Secondly, you will get a reward! When you vote on all the websites you can choose from a list of rewards and can claim this reward in-game, read further for instructions on how to claim your reward.
// How do vote points work?
Vote points are a way of saving your votes in order to spend them later. You can gain a vote point
// How can I claim my reward?
Once you have voted on all the sites, you will be requested to enter your username and choose a reward. After choosing your reward, simply log into the server or if you're already logged in then just reload and the reward will be added to your inventory.
// How often can I vote?
Unfortunately due to the restriction on most of the RSPS Top Lists, you can only vote and claim a reward once every 12 hours. This is not something that we can change.
// Important!
Make sure your vote has been submitted before you click next! If you skip a website and try to claim a reward, you may have to start again, usually you can just reload the page and the sites you've already voted for and vote for the ones you skipped.
Total Score - (84 out of 100)
Final Remarks: Overall, I am very impressed with Ivandis and where it has come in little over a months time. Keep up your statistics and content and I think you will do just fine. It was a fun time looking over Ivandis and snooping around to find the things I did. I did very well and you deserve the 84 score!
Strengths:
- Statistics
- Dark theme is nicely done
Weaknesses:
- Condense some forums that don't need their own category just yet
- Maybe watch the profanity within posts?
