Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
I have to say, I'm not too impressed at all when I first travel to your forum.
The theme is very dull, and there is a huge blanket of completely empty space on the homepage. The banner, however makes the visit a bit brighter, but it's not going to cut it. You need to find something to fill in that space, for sure.
Looking at the rest of the board, I really am not seeing anything that " woos " me. If I were a guest, I wouldn't be taken in at all by anything on the homepage. I really suggest you go for a different skin, perhaps something more glossy, glossy skins always pull in people
🙂
(Scored 11/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
I'm glad to say I'm not noticing any big problems in this category.
The link redirection thing is sort of obstructive at the top. When a member first comes to your site, you don't want a bunch of ad's thrown in their face, you want them to see your Introductions board, your Announcements, etc. I think the redirection service is always a good idea, but never at the top of a board. I'd say it would fit well lower to the bottom.
As for your " Forum Related " category, we have a few issues.
First of all, you do not need an entire board for rules ( even if it's just a redirection board ) all you need is a Global announcement of your forum rules and moderation policies, and you'll be fine. It's just taking up space by having a rules section there.
The news desk is definitely something that is needed, so that remains.
The Support and Suggestions board is also something that is needed, so keep that.
Introductions, again, an important board.
As for contests and your " advert hub " related category, we have a few options. First, as for contests, I suggest making it a sub forum of your news Desk board because that way there's less clutter in the category, and as for this advert hub related area, you can just delete it. There's no real need for it when you have a suggestions and support board.
The entire promotional section looks good, so A+ for that category.
Services, also look nice. I really like the idea of your forum bump service. I'm sure you'll draw in a lot of people with that.
As for your off topic boards, I suggest you change the name of " Gaming " to " Arcade " since you have an entire mini arcade set up for your members to use. Naming the board " Gaming " makes it sound like a gaming discussion board, like xbox etc.
I think you can do without Internet and computers for now since your board is pretty new. I would delete it and redirect those types of discussions to your regular Lounge.
(Scored 14/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
EXCELLENT! Is all I can say here. About 4,500 posts and only opened a little over a month!
Make sure to keep up the exchanges and continue promoting your board
🙂
(Scored 20/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
I took a look around for a while and couldn't find a staff list, but I went to the homepage, and found a list, luckily
😀
You have 2 Administrators, and 3 moderators.. plus yourself as another administrator. So that's 6 staff, half with ACP access, on a forum with 60 members and 4,500 posts. That is really just too much, especially on the admin part. Even the biggest forums on the web don't have more than 3 admins.. your board is very new, and you already have 3, what does that tell you? Too much.
I can't view any of your staff profiles as I am reviewing as a guest.. however, I found a top posters area, and all of your staff is in this list, which is a major plus. At least they're active. I suggest for now you leave it alone and do not hire any more staff. If you find one of your admins slacking, don't hesitate to demote them to global mod, as you really don't need 2 co admins.
Oh, and I really don't think you need a group just for yourself called " Owner ". There are 2 problems with this.
1) It is VERY similar in color to your Moderator group, and people may mistake you for a moderator, not the owner/admin
2) It makes you look very power hungry and self observed to potential members and even current members, and may turn them away. Just throw yourself in the Administrator group and make your custom title " Founder/Owner " or something, that's all you need to do, not have a whole seperate group for yourself.
(Scored 16/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
While I'm not noticing any specific grammar or spelling errors, I notice
a lot of the board descriptions are short and a lot of them have repetitive words which don't roll of the tounge good when reading about the description.. ie " Come post your link here so we can add your link to our link randomizer " type of descriptions. That's not pulled from your site directly but a lot of boards sound just like that. You can substitute the word link with, URL for example.
Other than that, professionalism also seems to lack a bit, for example, here:
http://advertshub.co.cc/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=563 you make a topic about one of your members being a spammer then telling a joke about it or something. It makes you look very immature and childish by doing stuff like this in your sites official news area. I'm not saying you can't do these things, infact I got a laugh out of it, but just keep those type of things to your off topic/general chit chatting boards.
(Scored 16/20)
Total Score - 77 (Out of 100)
What was most liked about the website/forums:
The forum bump service. You'll be sure to draw in a lot of people with that, and since your board is new and small compared to a lot of forum promoting sites, this the perfect antidote to score new members.
What was disliked most about the website/forums:
The empty homepage.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website?
I would definitely consider joining if you fixed the empty homepage and changed the theme up a bit.
Final Score: (77/100)
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