Large Forum Review
First Impressions
Oh goody, where do I begin? First of all, the thing that catches my eye is "Hello guest, why not register?
😀". In my opinion, you did that quite good, it's not so annoying that it'll send guests away, but not so hidden that people won't see it. However, it all goes down hill from there. In all honesty, I loved your old layout the best, it was just perfect, but this current banner...what can I say about it? It's just a bit too green for my liking and it contrasts with the pure white background, why is that background pure white anyways? It's dull and unattractive, if you want a light background, I suggest a light gray or dark white. Secondly, why are the register and login buttons so far away from the rest of the navigation bar? That just looks silly, a nav bar should be closer together for easier...well, navigation. The favicon is......a blank piece of paper apparently, why did you choose that? Perhaps it's the default one, which again is just silly. If you want to make a new theme, might as well do all the images really well. The forum images for "new post, Old post and Locked" Are default as well, as a PHPBB user myself, I know when images are default, Despite being default however, they do their job.
Another eye catch is your activity, it's on the right track and your community has obviously grown since the last time I reviewed this, I congratulate you on that. Your members seem dedicated and your forum isn't showing any signs of going down anytime soon. Well without further adieu, let me dissect this forum!
😎
(Score: 12/15)
Appearance
This is where we run into a bit of a problem, your favicon and post images are default, which makes you come off as.....lazy to some people. I'm not one of those people, but some people need a forum
PERFECTO in order to even consider lurking. So I suggest either doing the images yourself, or getting someone else to do them. In the end it will truly come off as better this way. Another thing I must note is the "Affiliate" right at the top, at least I believe it to be so. You don't want something like that near the top, because it will be the first thing that guests see, so maybe move it to the bottom of your forum, or to another page that's solely for affiliates. Now let's go more in depth with that banner. While it seems simple enough and colorful enough to catch eyes, it's surely missing something, and after awhile, I have found what that something is. It contrasts to much with the white background, while it's green and vibrant, the background is just too white, I mentioned this in my first impressions as well, you can't have something so color with such a bland backdrop, it just throws everything out of rhythm. This may just be my opinion, but I suggest darkening the background a bit, and maybe changing the banner to a blue or something. While the green does work to catch eyes, it contrasts to much, well enough of this, let us move on to other parts of the appearance.
The category font blends in with the layout font, making it difficult to read, so I suggest changing that up a bit, maybe making the category color white. In all honesty, the rest is pretty good, save for my own personal pet peeves like changing the section link colors and font color of the forum. Good luck with your forum!
(Score: 7/20)
Statistics and Activity
Here's where it gets a bit dodgy.
Total posts 13325 • Total topics 1146 • Total members 168
That actually isn't to bad, you have plenty of posts and your members seem very dedicated, I have no problem with this part of your forum, HOWEVER.
I do detest having to make an account if I want to see the "Staff" of the forum, it really irks me, and if you have a way, please change it so that guests may view profiles and stuff along those lines, it will make for a much better interactive forum, I'm getting off-topic here, so back to activity.
You have a decent amount of members active daily, which is really good for a forum that opened back in September, the site is just where it needs to be, but it could be a little farther along. I would comment on the amount of members active and posting, but sadly I need to login for that, which I will not waste my time doing, but alas, since this is a review, I must do what is necessary.
*Taps hands on desk* I have nothing to say...really. May I ask why I had to confirm my email? That's just....an annoyance, it truly is. Until your forum gets active enough, it shouldn't have one of these email activations, as it's fairly annoying and turns off MANY MANY guests, I know from personal experience. However, since your forum is Active, it can get away with this, just another pet peeve of mine.
As for the members individual activity, the staff have most of the post's, although I see some members have over 200+ Posts, which is very good for your site's reputation. Although, in all I can count only 20 active members per day, who actually post more than once and on topics that truly matter. It's better to have 20 dedicated members than 100 inactive ones. What I really think you should do is have a notice that warns all inactive members of deletion within 2 weeks if they do not post, or haven't posted in a very long time, members with under 2 posts of course, so your forum doesn't lose any of it's total posts. On that note, let's move on!
(Score: 15/20)
Ratios
*Swan dives right into Ratios* *Lands and puts sunglasses on* Let's begin, shall we?
I would say that you have too many boards, except for the fact that every single one of them is active, so that isn't a issue here. As for staff members, I'd actually have to say that you have not ENOUGH staff members. Your forum is growing at an impressive rate, but I suggest adding a review team member or two, to speed up those reviews, as well as one more Global Moderator. It may seem like that's way too much, but trust me, it will make things run much smoother on your forum, not just for you, but for everyone who loves it. Once you gain these new staff members, you'll notice that reviews will be under control and so will the suggestions and errors suggestion, what I'd like to point out, is that you should have a Support Leader. What is a support leader you ask?
A Support Leader is the person who is in charge of all Complaints and Suggestions, they look them over, answer the questions if possible, and pass on the good suggestions to the admins, it makes everyone's job much easier. They usually are right hand to the Admins, and take over if they are unable to perform their job, sort of a back-up admin if you will. Despite what I said, you have done a good job keeping everything in control, and I look forward to your site succeeding.
(Score: 8/10)
Content
Not much to say here really, the descriptions are well written and the announcements are spot on, while the rules could use a bit of expanding, I don't see any huge problems here.
(Score: 20/20)
Navigation
Well, here's another problem I run into. As a guest, you cannot fully explore the board, which turns a lot of guests away, fix this problem and your new member ratio will increase, I guarantee it. The Navigation bar is okay, though a bit spaced out like I said before, might want to bring them closer together. All in all, not much to say here either.
(Score: 12/15)
Total Score
74/100
Final Remarks
A forum with great potential, fix the things I told you about, and you'll probably surpass most forums out there. I loved reviewing this, it taught me a few new things about PHPBB and forum activity, seems I benefited from this as well! Good luck in the future!
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