Advanced Review of RPG Maker MV
Review by Teg
First Impressions: (9 out of 10)
At first glance, I like and appreciate your forum. The dark colors and the red complement each other well. The new/old icons are neat and different which makes them original. And, the logo is decent, but I don't like the little character in it. I'll discuss that in the design aspects of this review. Overall, based on looking at the home page, I like your forum.
Number of Posts & Members: (10 out of 10)
The member and post count for your forum is seriously impressive given that the forum opened in October of 2015. Honestly, I'm wowed by the number of members and posts you have on your forum. From recent experience, one of my forums is just about four months old. It has a little over 100 members and almost 6,000 posts which is less than half of what you've accomplished with your project here. I must say congratulations, and I ask that you write up a guide to tell others how you managed to get so much in such a short period. Kudos, majorly. I have no suggestions for you here.
Activity Level: (7 out of 10)
While the activity seems to be okay and there are posts on all the boards today back to Monday, I'm slightly concerned about the latest activity on your forum. While most of the board seem to have recent activity in them, most of them only have about 1-3 threads that have been active in the last three days. I think you should figure out some interesting and creative ways to get your users more productive in those particular boards. The introductions board seems to be booming.
Also, there's no way to see how many of your members have been online today. It's hard to measure any activity without that information because someone would have to go through every board and every thread to find that information. Maybe find a way to show users who were online "today," somewhere on the forum. I do see who is online now, and that's cool. I've been visiting since I took the request and on average I see between 7-8 actual members online at one time. I feel that with the number of members and posts that you have, your members online at any given time should be much higher than that.
At any rate, based on what I can see, I think your activity is good--as I stated before. However, I do believe you need to make an effort to improve the activity in each of your boards and get them as booming as the introductions board. You have more than enough members to make that happen. Maybe, you might have to give them some incentive to post. Whatever it is, you should do it. It'll help your forum greatly.
Site Structure: (18 out of 20)
The site structure of RPG Maker MV is great. The menu is easy to navigate, and the links all go to the pages that they are assigned. The forum categories and boards are in--what seems like--the appropriate places. I love the sidebar being on the left rather than on the right for this type of forum. One thing I'd like to suggest, I mentioned it above, is to find a way to list users who were online "today." It'll help show visitors how active your forum is apart from seeing the dates where the last posts have been made. Other than that, I have no suggestions to improve your site's structure.
I do want to mention, quickly, that I love the Sub-Forums settings that your forum has. I've never seen that before. Typically, sub-forums are listed on a separate line, separated by a comma, and contain all the sub-forums. The Sub-board drop-down menu that you have on your forum is unique and different. So, I applaud your uniqueness.
Design Quality: (14 out of 20)
As I mentioned in my "First Impressions," I love the design of RPG Maker MV. The dark colors, light grays, white, and red all match well with each other. The new and old icons are different and unique, and the character on them fits for the genre of your forum. As I mentioned earlier, I like the logo. The part of the logo that I don't particularly like is the character. The reason I don't like it is because it's blurry and hard to make out. If the character's image was more precise and clear, I think it would be an excellent addition to your logo.
One other thing that I have a problem with is staff username colors and colors for specific types of users. You have a darker green and purple color assigned to some of your users (or their groups). Those darker colors are too dark and make it hard to read the names of users against that dark background. I highly suggest that you change up the colors. Make the purple a brighter purple. For the dark green, since you already have a bright green, use yellow instead (or another more vivid color of your choice). Doing this will ensure the names can be seen and that the text isn't hard to the eyes as it is now.
Originality: (15 out of 15)
Your forum is original, at least, to me. I don't see many RPG forums out there, let alone RPG Maker forums. I do believe this is part of the reason that your forum has done so well in such a short amount of time. The content is unique and informative, and it relates to the purpose of your forum. Also, I can't say that I've ever seen a forum that contains a "Wiki" page. Honestly, you've inspired me, and I may use that on my current RP project for Harry Potter if you don't mind. Honestly, I have nothing to recommend for improving your originality.
Spelling, Grammar & Professionalism: (12 out of 15)
While some grammar and spelling could be improved, I'm going to choose not to knit pick on little things. That said, I will deduct points for Spelling and Grammar. Professionalism, on the other hand, seems to be top notch amongst all of your staff especially in the support forum and when dealing with members. It's very rare that I see a discussion community of this stature that consists of staff who are professional and respectful to all of their members. Again, I applaud you. You and your staff have done an excellent job with professionalism. As I said before, some spelling and grammatical errors were found, but everything looks and reads well. Keep it up!
Thing you liked best about forum: I love the colors and overall look and feel of the forum. I also love the genre and purpose of it.
Thing you liked least about forum: There is no way to tell who's been online "today" in an easy way, and I think that should be displayed to all visitors to give them an idea of how much activity the forum sees day to day.
Overall Mark: (85 out of 100)
For three months old, I think that your forum is doing extremely well. I didn't have very many complaints about your forum at all. Coming from me, a person who always finds negative aspects, that should tell you a lot. I enjoyed reviewing your forum. For the sake of a current project, I may even join because I think that you guys can help me with my project. Keep it up!
