Atrium
Full Review by Bazinga!
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (16 out of 20)
I just want to say that I love the idea of your forum. I know it's more of a 'general discussion' forum and you see quite a few of those floating around. But I like the idea that you have a place where your members can advertise their own sites as well. Most 'general discussion' forums don't allow that (at least, not that I've seen).
One of my first thoughts is I noticed you had several 'themes' or skins' to use already for you forum. I noticed you had a Halloween 'skin' available for your forum and I was wondering why you weren't using that one as your default skin since Halloween is just around the corner. Also, since we are discussing a default 'theme' for your forum, I think that "Atrium Boosted" fits your forum the best out of all the 'themes' you have available. It seems to tie in best with the niche of your forum and seems to be the most pleasing to the eyes.
One of my other thoughts is "What kind of a name is Atrium?" I'm glad you picked out a name that is unique and different from other 'general discussion' forums because you want to stand out from the crowd.
Site Layout – (17 out of 20)
The way that your forum is laid out is very neat and organized, which is good. The easier it is to navigate, the better. One of my pet peeves is trying to navigate around a forum and not being able to find what I'm looking for. I find it extremely frustrating. I found it a little unusual that the navigation bar was directly at the top of the page above the forum banner/header. On other forums that I've been on, the navigation bar has always been located directly underneath the banner/header or sometimes located horizontally, right next to the sections of the forum. So the location of your navigation bar threw me off there for a second but that's because it's not where I'm normally use to seeing it. But that's not a bad thing. It is easily accessible but you got creative and put it somewhere that others haven't thought of.
Statistics and Activity – (19 out of 20)
At the time of this review, you have 99 members and 18,671 posts. I think that is AWESOME statistics, especially since your forum hasn't even been open for a full month yet. Whatever you are doing, keep doing it. Don't ever grow complacent because if you drop off then your forum will start to drop off as well. Members will notice if the staff loose interest and they will figured "Why bother?". Something to keep in mind for the future, and this is just an idea I came up with at the spur of the moment, is some type of contest and/or giveaway related to your entertainment section. For instance, you can have a giveaway where someone could be awarded movie tickets to blockbuster movie that may be coming out soon. Or you could have a contest where someone wins a free book or an X-Box Live membership. You can run several contests or giveaways, and the prize awarded can be different to match the contest or giveaway. And you can run the contests/giveaways simultaneously or one at a time.
Content – (13 out of 20)
This is probably the hardest area to cover when reviewing. Some of the topics seem to be a bit........how should I put it...they are pretty common or generic stuff that you can find anywhere on just about any forum. In order to keep your members interested and to keep them coming back for the long haul, you'll need to be able to have different topics that no one else has. When you have a 'general discussion' forum, you can discuss pretty much anything so you should branch out and add topics that are outside the norm.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (17 out of 20)
I did not notice any spelling or grammar mistakes. An occasional mistake will happen from time to time but as long as it doesn't get in the way of your members being able to read and understand one another, then it is okay. I don't expect perfect grammar / spelling all the time, especially when dealing with members who aren't a native speaker of English, but the threads and posts my be readable. If not, then it makes for a lot of misunderstandings and frustration. So it will have to be something that the staff will have to keep an eye on.
As far as the professionalism goes, I can't find anything wrong with your staff. I've noticed that your staff is always present on your forum which is great. If the staff takes an interest in the forum they're working on, then that makes both the members that have already joined and the guests that haven't joined yet want to take an interest in your forum. So make sure the staff keeps up the good work. The only thing I have to say is that I've noticed is the different names for your staff. You have the administration in red, the manager in blue, the community panel in green, the service panel in pink and the visual panel in orange. Now, I have a pretty good idea of what the administrator and manager is, but I'm not sure what the community panel, the service panel and visual panel is suppose to be or what their responsibilities are suppose to be on the forum. When I looked at the administrator/moderator page, the only people I found there where the administrators and your manager. It would be nice to have at least a thread dedicated just to your staff that introduces them to the rest of your forum and explains their responsibilities and/or job. Also, you have a thread where members can get to know their staff by asking them question and the staff can answer. Kind of a "Get to know the staff" thread. If you already have something like this then please accept my apologies as I did not find one.
Total Score - (82 out of 100)
Final Remarks:
My compliments to the staff for having a really good forum and doing their best to try to make the it the best experience possible. With a few minor changes, I think you can make it a great forum and it'll be even better. Keep up the awesome work and you can go far with your community!
Strengths:
- - Activity on the forum exceeds expectations!
- Professional staff.
Weaknesses:
- - A different "theme" can be used on the forum.
- Add new and different topics. Don't be afraid to get creative and be unique!
- Create a staff page to introduce your staff to your members.
