Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20) First thing I saw was the amazing banner, who ever designed that has done a sterling job, it fits in great with your site, it's well thought about and comes of well. After that I came to Wolfwood's Brawl Slots Tourney At first I thought it was an advert but then realized it was a feature of the forum. I think a lot of guest will also think it's an advert, so may look at changing where it says "Super Smash Bros. Brawl Domain" to something else with one of the following in it, latest news, events, tournaments etc. It's not a major problem it will just make it more clearer on first glance what that bit is about.
The overall appearance is excellent and I can see a lot of work has gone into this, the forum icons are well thought about and for me gives the site that extra touch. This site has had a lot of time spent on it and it really does show, and credit is due for this. I also like how you can switch between themes as it shows how far you have progressed, I would not have SMF default theme though just the light, dark and classic ones.
(Scored 18/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20) I found navigation easy with the navbar menu underneath the banner, which is always a good thing, the forums all have good in-depth descriptions, so users and guest can find what they are looking for. While browsing the forums you have catered for all your users with different forums which you would not see on a gaming forum , which I really liked.
Usually I would pick up on how long your forum index is as you have over 20+ forums on your index, which is usually a turn off but the way you have done it works as you have the important forums at the top, with less forums lower down, you have made use of the sub-forum feature as well. The only thing I don't think normal users should see is the Staff Tier, all forums have them but no part is usually on show, look at changing permissions so no one can see it.
The info center is great to see and you have made good use of it by having upcoming events in there, I also like how you have affiliates and rank sites in different boxes and is not something I have seen before when reviewing, it is something that looks good and really does work, well done for that. You made one mistake though, you have the css/xhtml validation buttons on your site, which I don't see very often because most sites fail validation, I was hoping by clicking them yours would but it came back with 131 errors and 15 warnings for the xhtml and you passed css validation, look at getting the Xhtml valid at some point. There are sites that offer help with sorting the errors out.
What I did find cluttered is the view topic, users signatures nad mini profile's are long than more posts and for guests and new users can be a really turn off most of what is in peoples mini profile/signatures could be on there members page, but that is down to admin/owner choice what is displayed where.
(Scored 17/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20) You have been open over 2 years which is great, most forums don't last that long. Your post count is very impressive (122329) which is around 3193 post per day which is an amazing statistic and something you should be very proud of. You 1737 users which is very good but counted 20 users on the 1st page of the memberlist with 0 post count. I always suggest deleting users who haven't logged in after 6 months as its a dead account.
Other than that your site is very active, you had a 122 users visit in last 24 hours, more than most forums full memberlist, so it shows that there is plenty going on on your site and it keeps users coming back
(Scored 19/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20) From your staff page I count 2 admins and 9 moderators, which for a forum your size is about right and not only that all your staff are very active, which is a must for all staff members. Which is also good is your staff have a good knowledge about what they are doing and the genre of your forum.
Going through you feedback forum, the staff respond to any problems very quickly and aver very helpful
(Scored 18/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20) Going through your forum I checked all forum descriptions for spelling and grammar errors and found the following errors: "Have a problem or question about the forum? Want to suggests us your own ideas to help make the Domain even better?" should be "Have a problem or question about the forum? Want to suggest us your own ideas to help make the Domain even better?". Also "Wanna see some Domain Matches, and not just read about them? Wanna upload a match you've had in the Domain? All Brawl replays and videos uploaded can be posted and watched in this section." should really be "Want to see some Domain Matches, and not just read about them? Want to upload a match you've had in the Domain? All Brawl replays and videos uploaded can be posted and watched in this section." As Wanna is not a real word but if you wanna use it the that's your choice.
There were also other errors in your forum descriptions, go through each one and check any for errors as I didn't want to list everyone, also noticed mistakes in staff posts, no one is perfect but make sure your remind your staff to check their posts before posting. On the professionalism side of things, you, your staff and your site come across as very professional, if I was to complain about anything then it was seeing a staff member with a dancing condom as their avatar which I didn't not find very appropriate for the forum.
(Scored 14/20)
Total Score - (86 of 100)
Final Remarks: I really enjoyed reviewing you site and you have done a very good job in your 2 years, I only found one or two minor issues, look at what I said and then decide your next coarse of action, remember this review is just my view. further more keep up the good work. If you need help with your xhtml errors let me know via pm, as I run a validation service on my site.
What was most liked about the website/forums: The site graphics and activity
What was disliked most about the website/forums: The cluttered view topic.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Nothing already joined
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