BoltForums | Standard Review & Feedback Topic
- Thread starter Korora
- Start date
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DudeThatsErin
Paragon
When I first came on the site, I didn't realize that the categories were at the top like that so it didn't seem like there were very many places to post. Personally, I don't like it when forums do that, I realize it is to condense the main page but if you have to do that to condense it, you really need to delete some categories, imo.
Layout is nice though the logo is hard for me to read. Not sure what your forum is about. Scratch that. didn't realize you had a footer, I see what your forum is about now though that text is hard to read as well.
This MyBB theme has been over-used same with the red administration usernames and animations to other user group usernames. Try doing something different with them. Not sure what you could do myself but maybe you'll have more luck figuring that out.
What is the usergroups category for? It only has 1 section.... I would recommend deleting that and merging it with another category/section.
I would recommend posting more in each section. I see a lot of sections with zeros and that doesn't bode well for more activity. No new member likes to be the first one to post there unless they have incentive to do so (packager, post4post, post2host, etc.).
Layout is nice though the logo is hard for me to read. Not sure what your forum is about. Scratch that. didn't realize you had a footer, I see what your forum is about now though that text is hard to read as well.
This MyBB theme has been over-used same with the red administration usernames and animations to other user group usernames. Try doing something different with them. Not sure what you could do myself but maybe you'll have more luck figuring that out.
What is the usergroups category for? It only has 1 section.... I would recommend deleting that and merging it with another category/section.
I would recommend posting more in each section. I see a lot of sections with zeros and that doesn't bode well for more activity. No new member likes to be the first one to post there unless they have incentive to do so (packager, post4post, post2host, etc.).
Looks great and I love the animated header background. Maybe spend some time posting around on your sections as some as empty and people may not join if they are empty. Maybe also change the font colour of your footer text
I would choose different icons for the Navigation, Extras, and Profile menus at the bottom rather than just squares. 😛 Other than that, I think the forum is nice. The theme reminds me of an old forum I belonged to, haha.
BoltForums
Review by Giorgios
Review by Giorgios
[note]========== BEGIN - Design Quality ==========[/note]
When I think of a bolt, lightning comes to mind, and lightning is very light and bright when you see it in the sky. So I went through and was looking to see if you had another theme option besides the default dark theme. To my surprise, I didn't see one which was a bit odd to see only the default theme offered. While your current theme is fine, I know that most tend to favor a light theme or rather a theme in between, including myself. WIth your name being BoltForums, perhaps you could go with a light coloring on the theme and perhaps actually incorporating aspects or images of lightning somehow. On the navigation bar, have a hover effect of a lightning bolt showing up when you hover over the tabs. Or rather then even going with a new theme, try recoloring your current one to cater to all aspects. The text would especially be a big aspect, particularly at the bottom of the site description and some of the various links. The text is extremely light and was hard trying to read it:
[note]========== END - Design Quality ==========[/note]
Good
[note]========== BEGIN - Site Structure ==========[/note]
Your site description at the bottom states that you are a general discussion forum for all various topics. With that in mind though, I'm scratching my head as to why there is such a large marketplace section on the forum, especially with its own tab. While on this topic, I was looking for the basic general forums and after a few seconds realized it was on the home tab. Those forums tend to normally be one of the busiest areas on general discussion forums especially. With that said, I honestly think the marketplace needs to be toned down quite a bit, and the general forums need to be brought into its own tab/section to give it more exposure. The marketplace is good, but I don't see it getting as much use as the general forums which should be the primary goal. With the home tab, I would look at moving the site offical forums such Announcements and such into its own tab as well such as an Information thread. The Home tab doesn't explain what I can expect on that tab of forum sections. But coming back to my main point, this actually was a bit of a shock and disappointing to see that one of the main aspects of a general forum to be somewhat hidden with the marketplace taking precedence.
[note]========== END - Site Structure ==========[/note]
Poor
[note]========== BEGIN - Spelling & Professionalism ==========[/note]
One thing I noticed off the bat on the forum was the list of all Bans that are on your forum. While some may find a reason for that, I've never understood the need or benefit to have that public to non Staff members. It gives off an unprofessional vibe and will usually end up serving to only cause arguments. I went on that page and seen one ban in particular that was interesting and a bit surprising to see the ban reason written like that:
Obviously I have no way of knowing what happened, but it comes down though to have this type of information open to the public. Those who are not Staff have no use for that information except for malicious purposes in most cases. On the professionalism side of things for this particular ban reason, regardless of what the situation was, the Staff as a whole should remain professional and keep a calm tone. This even extends to issuing a ban in the most severe cases. I do not not know what happened, but when I see that type of writing regardless in public from a Staff Member, it doesn't look professional to me at all.
On the Spelling side of the review, I only found two small errors that aren't tragic.
The Online Accounts forum currently reads as Onlince Accounts. The other is a sentence structure error found in a forum description:
This should read as such:
[note]========== END - Spelling & Professionalism ==========[/note]
Poor
Final Remarks
When I first stumbled upon BoltForums, I was expecting a bit more than what I saw, and to be leaving with a positive experience. The forum has some great aspects, but is lacking in areas of professionalism and site structure. These two are both very key on all forums, but especially on general discussion forums in catering and always developing new topic ideas for members. I would look at removing the ban list and working on cleaning up any aspects of unprofessionalism, and putting the star forum sections into the main light for everyone to utilize.
Your Score
Giorgios said:
BoltForums
Review by Giorgios
Design Quality
[note]========== BEGIN - Design Quality ==========[/note]
When I think of a bolt, lightning comes to mind, and lightning is very light and bright when you see it in the sky. So I went through and was looking to see if you had another theme option besides the default dark theme. To my surprise, I didn't see one which was a bit odd to see only the default theme offered. While your current theme is fine, I know that most tend to favor a light theme or rather a theme in between, including myself. WIth your name being BoltForums, perhaps you could go with a light coloring on the theme and perhaps actually incorporating aspects or images of lightning somehow. On the navigation bar, have a hover effect of a lightning bolt showing up when you hover over the tabs. Or rather then even going with a new theme, try recoloring your current one to cater to all aspects. The text would especially be a big aspect, particularly at the bottom of the site description and some of the various links. The text is extremely light and was hard trying to read it:
[note]========== END - Design Quality ==========[/note]
Good
Site Structure
[note]========== BEGIN - Site Structure ==========[/note]
Your site description at the bottom states that you are a general discussion forum for all various topics. With that in mind though, I'm scratching my head as to why there is such a large marketplace section on the forum, especially with its own tab. While on this topic, I was looking for the basic general forums and after a few seconds realized it was on the home tab. Those forums tend to normally be one of the busiest areas on general discussion forums especially. With that said, I honestly think the marketplace needs to be toned down quite a bit, and the general forums need to be brought into its own tab/section to give it more exposure. The marketplace is good, but I don't see it getting as much use as the general forums which should be the primary goal. With the home tab, I would look at moving the site offical forums such Announcements and such into its own tab as well such as an Information thread. The Home tab doesn't explain what I can expect on that tab of forum sections. But coming back to my main point, this actually was a bit of a shock and disappointing to see that one of the main aspects of a general forum to be somewhat hidden with the marketplace taking precedence.
[note]========== END - Site Structure ==========[/note]
Poor
Spelling & Professionalism
[note]========== BEGIN - Spelling & Professionalism ==========[/note]
One thing I noticed off the bat on the forum was the list of all Bans that are on your forum. While some may find a reason for that, I've never understood the need or benefit to have that public to non Staff members. It gives off an unprofessional vibe and will usually end up serving to only cause arguments. I went on that page and seen one ban in particular that was interesting and a bit surprising to see the ban reason written like that:
Obviously I have no way of knowing what happened, but it comes down though to have this type of information open to the public. Those who are not Staff have no use for that information except for malicious purposes in most cases. On the professionalism side of things for this particular ban reason, regardless of what the situation was, the Staff as a whole should remain professional and keep a calm tone. This even extends to issuing a ban in the most severe cases. I do not not know what happened, but when I see that type of writing regardless in public from a Staff Member, it doesn't look professional to me at all.
On the Spelling side of the review, I only found two small errors that aren't tragic.
The Online Accounts forum currently reads as Onlince Accounts. The other is a sentence structure error found in a forum description:
This should read as such:
[note]========== END - Spelling & Professionalism ==========[/note]
Poor
Final RemarksWhen I first stumbled upon BoltForums, I was expecting a bit more than what I saw, and to be leaving with a positive experience. The forum has some great aspects, but is lacking in areas of professionalism and site structure. These two are both very key on all forums, but especially on general discussion forums in catering and always developing new topic ideas for members. I would look at removing the ban list and working on cleaning up any aspects of unprofessionalism, and putting the star forum sections into the main light for everyone to utilize.
Your Score
This is a very good review!
I will try to fix up a few things. The marketplace section is actually very small for its kind.
And about that warning we have just lost our cool with that member because he was being rather a nuisance. We have solved the issue with the member. I have also remove the ban page as it was not dynamic and wasn't essentially accurate.
I am planning on re-placing the forums and do things a lot differently. There are many big changes yet to come! 🙂
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