Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
The first impressions I recieve from your forum are very slow. Your site loads very slowly which means different images are loaded in different orders. The first image and for quite a while the only image I see on the header is the advertising spot text, which is actually very offputting when I visit a forum. The problem with having the amount of advertisments on your site as you have is that it is easy to give people the impression that you are only looking to earn money and aren't actually interested in providing an enjoyable community for them.
Once your page has finally loaded I am forced to sit back and think for a while. Had I not been reviewing your site I would of honestly closed the tab. The reason for this is the colour scheme you have used. When you create a theme with a certain colour scheme you usually have a colour that breaks from the rest to give the eye something to follow, in your case this would be the green. But I feel you have used far too much green on the theme, so much that it clashes and becomes instead an eyesore. I would suggest replacing the green on the section titles with a light blue and keeping the green for the logo and small details.
The logo itself with the three arrows gives me the impression of some kind of trading forum, not a promotion forum, there is actually nothing about the look of your forum that makes me think Promotion forum. The Facebook like button takes up far too much space in the middle of the forum and there isn't any of the board showing unless I scroll down. I would suggest moving the facebook like button and getting rid of the huge Zetaboards advert, they really aren't needed. If the green were replaced with a pale blue instead, a blue that is slightly stronger than the blue that is behind the board descriptions then you actually have quite a nice theme.There are a lot of things on the theme that work really well and look good, just get rid of the green and you will do well.
(Score: 11/20)
Site Layout
The first section, Antiquus Official, is just what I expect the first section to be, it contains the normal information about the board. The second section, Antiquus Services, contains exactly what I would expect from a promotion forum, promotion board and services. The services you offer really don't benefit a members forum much outside of your forum though, which I find a real shame. I would like to see something that a member of your forum can gain from a bit more, even when your forum doesn't exist anymore.
The third section, Administrative Discource, contains basic admin discussion boards. The amount of posts in this section are fine, even though the title of the section doesn't really fit with what the section contains. The community discussion boards contains most of the forums posts, a common trap many administrators fall into. The best way to solve this is by getting support from your staff as I will explain later on in the review.
Even if the shoutbox is tucked away down the bottom of the forum it is stil there. After looking at it I believe it is taking away a lot of activity from the rest of your site which really isn't good. I suggest either removing it completely or making it a fature for staff and VIP Members only.
(Scored 16/20)
Statistics and Activity
Date Forum Opened: 24. May 2011, Then we closed in September. We then Re-opened Antiquus on , 28, December 2011. This would mean the forum has been active for around 5 months.
Total Forum Posts: 11,359
Total Members: 197
Your forum has had an average of 2270 posts per month which isn't a bad amount, this is something you should be happy with, especially as your forum has been closed for several months. This tells me that you have done a good job of getting old members to return to your forum. Your members have made an average of 57 posts each which is also compeletly ok for 5 months. It is also understandable that forums that have closed for a while have a lower post count per member as it is easy to lose members during the period of closure. I feel that as long as your staff are active and boosting discussion and you put effort into your forum then there won't be any issues with activity. On promotion forums you will get those that come, advertise and go and you will get those that stick around. If you have some that come and go, don't been down-hearted, it is completely normal.
(Scored 19/20)
Staff Moderation
You have 3 adminstrators and 4 moderators which I feel is far too much for the size of your forum. Especially as the forum is recovering from a closure you would be fine with 1 admin and 2 or maybe 3 moderators. There are forums a lot larger than antiquus that have half the staff you have. The only staff member that doesn't have the post count and activity levels I would expect from staff is DarkShame2. It may be an idea to let him go as staff as you do have too many staff and he doesn't seem to be doing the job he has been hired to do. All admins have good post counts and activity stats.
Your admins are good at posting and replying to topics but it seems that your staff aren't doing a good job at getting your members to post. I see a lot of discussions that are dominated by your staff and members don't seem to want to get a word in. This is never good and you really need to work on the interaction between members and staff. Talk to your staff about where and what they are posting. To help the activity on the board your staff should avoid posting in the general discussion area and post more in the admin topics to encourage your members to do the same.
(Scored 14/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
The forum doesn't give me a very professional feel when I first visit and the theme doesn't really give that impression either. To achieve this you would need a theme that doesn't have as much going on nor such bright colours.
The board descriptions are of varied quality. Some are very well written whereas others could do with some improvement. Some are very short and more demanding that informative which is a real shame. There are small grammatical errors here and there but the spelling seems to be in order. I suggest getting someone to proof read the board for you and take a day to ask your staff to help you update and improve the board descriptions.
(Scored 17/20)
Total Score - 67/100
Final Remarks
A forum that seems to have done remarkably well even after being closed for several months. I hope that you don't close the forum again as this can really harm it and it would be much harder to revive. There are some obvious improvements and some smaller that can come after time, I wish you all the luck!
Strong Points
Statistics
Things to Improve
Theme, Board descriptions
After reading your review, please click here to rate our service.
The Team Leader will deduct the cash from your account shortly.
