Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
When a potential user visits your forum, you want them to have excellent first impressions. I honestly didn't have very good first impressions, but that just means I have more suggestions that can improve your forum. Firstly, I don't like your forum's logo. It isn't professional. The font doesn't really fit your forum's genre, it's like a Star Wars type of font. There should be some kind of icon on the logo as well. It seems empty besides the rather large text. That leads to my next point on the logo, the text seems unnecessarily too big on your forum's logo. The logo is just generic. The text color and border is just very plain, there should be a gradient on the text or something. Also, blue text on a blue header should not be done, even if there's a border that points out the text. Secondly, your forum needs a favicon. All I see is a white paper default icon, that is really lame. You need to have some customization. You could have a custom favicon made with "AT" on it, or you can just find an icon that symbolizes administrating, discussing, or being a webmaster.
Thirdly, your logo should be aligned on your forum's logo. It doesn't need to be centered horizontally, but it should be centered vertically, or the header should just be a tad smaller. Fourthly, I feel your forum should have fancy rank images for staff members. It would be a nice benefit to staff members. Fifthly, I don't think you should use MyBB's default stars. The default stars are nice, but they're just too common. You can find better stars on icon source websites that are rarely used on forums. Sixthly, your forum's board icons look nice. Seventhly, your forum's color scheme is alright, but I feel the blue on the header background and the menu background is a little too strong. Lastly, I am not that big of a fan of your theme, but I like that it's by NanoSkinners and it's not too commonly used. The background images looks kind of weird to me though. Overall, I feel your forum has a lot of potential improvements. I wish you the best of luck making these improvements.
(Score: 11/20)
Site Layout
Your forum's menu layout is a bit strange. I don't feel "View New Posts" should be the first thing on the menu, as it should be in order of importance. Seeing as login and register is on the menu, I feel the member list should go first. It might be better to have a home menu button. You may be able to click the logo to go to the index page, but a home menu button is better as some people aren't used to clicking the forum's logo to navigate back to the home page. I like that you have the login box on the header though. That's nice. It's also cool that the search box is on the menu, and it's set up quick and easy.
Now to the board layout. Your forum has 18 boards in five categories. That is too many boards considering the shape your forum is in right now. Your forum isn't active enough to keep every single board active, so I feel you need to simmer down the amount of boards. That may sound hard, but it's actually very easy. For example, you could get rid of the "Welcome, Guest" category as the board itself isn't necessary. It just has a redirection board, which I personally don't think helps promote registration too much. I feel the "Headquarters" category is set up nicely. I don't have any problems with it. The "Managing Your Forum" board and the "Forum Software" board could be merged. Then in the "General" category, the "Entertainment & Computing" board and the "Media Discussions" board can be merged. Overall, your forum's layout is decent, but improvements can be made. Good luck!
(Scored 12/20)
Statistics and Activity
As of right now, your forum has accumulated 237 posts in 68 threads by 35 members. Your forum has been open since around October 20th, so your forum's statistics aren't very good. I know the hacking was a major set back for your forum's statistics, but I'm pretty sure your forum's statistics weren't too good before the hacking. Your forum's statistics need some work. I feel you should participate in more post exchanges to promote activity, as activity is barely passing. Your forum seems to have become more active after the hacking, but it still isn't very well. You need to work on activity. There are a lot of inactive boards. Once you limit the layout, this shouldn't be too big of a problem, but you need to spread out the distribution of activity. According to your forum's statistics page, your forum averages about ten posts a day. That's not great, but your forum has the potential to multiply that by ten. Overall, your forum's statistics aren't very good but it's understandable considering the hacking, and activity seems to be doing better, but it still needs to be improved. Good luck making improvements.
(Scored 15/20)
Staff Moderation
Staff moderation seems to be going fine. I don't see any problems anyways. There isn't much going on at your forum, so I doubt there are many occurring things that need to be moderated in the first place. According to your forum's "Forum Team" page, your forum has three staff members. Two of the staff members are administrators, and one staff member is a super moderator. I don't feel your forum needs two administrators really. Some people like to share ownership though, so I guess I understand. It's good that there is some variety of staff positions on your forum, instead of all the staff members having the same staff position. All the staff members could probably be a bit more active as well. All the staff members average a range of 1-4 posts per day, that could be improved. I feel all the staff members should put in an extra effort to make a few posts a day, everyday. It's not that hard if there are things to discuss. Topic creation is crucial as well. Overall, staff moderation is fine, but staff members should be more active. Good luck!
(Scored 16/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
Your forum doesn't seem to be very professional. It's a disappointment actually. It all starts with the things I have mentioned throughout this review, and then it ends up becoming atrocious once I start giving an in depth analysis of your forum. I'll start point out the spelling and grammar errors I noticed. I found many of them. Firstly, in the first board title, "Your" should be "You're." There should be a space between "Logged and "In" as well. The board description has errors as well. It needs to be "You must login to gain access to post on the forums, be part of contests, and download useful tools for your forum or website." Secondly, in the "Suggestions & Feedback" board description, there needs to be a space between "feedback," and "suggestion." The "Introductions & Farewells" board description should be "Say hello to the new members by introducing them and showing them around the forum." Thirdly, in the "Managing Your Forum" board description, "Access" needs to be lowercase. I think the board description is worded funny as well, but I'm really not sure on what to suggest. Fourthly, in the "Programming Discussion board description, it should be the following: "Everything about databases, programming without databases, or web codes the site wouldn't function without is discussed here. Fifthly, in the "Forum Software" board description, "&" should be "or." Sixthly, in the "Blogs, CMS & Other Codes" board description, it should be "Do you own your own server? Need help or advice? Well, you have come to the right place, you can discuss it all inside here." There are more mistakes, but that's all I have pointed out. You need to go through and proofread all your forum titles, board description, and important topics. I feel you seem to like to have your board descriptions as run-on sentences, that is not acceptable. You should be more creative with your forum's board descriptions as well. They seem rather repetitive. Overall, professional isn't very good and your forum's spelling and grammar is poor. Good luck.
(Scored 6/20)
Total Score - 60/100
Final Remarks
Admin Talk is a forum that just doesn't seem to be very good. It has a lot of problems. Hopefully, you will read through this and listen to at least some of my suggestions and advice. Also, you really need to focus on your forum's security, as I'm sure you know. It's great to see that your forum is still standing though. Good luck.
Strong Points
Your forum's staff team and recent activity, which is decent considering your forum is lucky to even be still standing after that hacking.
Things to Improve
Your forum's theme, images, statistics, professionalism, spelling, grammar, and layout.
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