Medium Forum Review
First Impressions
First things first, your default theme ( Core Modding) is awful, get rid of it, I was, shall we say disappointed to land at that theme, then I discovered the “change theme” menu, get rid of all of them bar “Warrior” and “brave”, they are the two best themes and the only ones you should be using. If anything you need to develop a lighter theme which incorporates the elements of those two.
You need a favicon.
Thankfully my first impressions were improved after seeing the two dark styles … phew !
Appearance
The two themes I prefer are quite similar, the warrior theme does seem to be that little more adventurous as it uses transparencies, the only shame is that the background is only visible for a about a third of the board, I would look into using a better graphic that is the same length as the index, or probably easier, code the index page to scroll over the fixed background. The “brave” theme is less adventurous, but still has outstanding quality, good tones of grey and black, the text isn’t too bright to be off putting, but the lack of a hover colour is. Both themes work for the genre you are in.
The banner text could be larger on both styles, with a great deal more styling, make it shout not whisper.
Ratios
What I see is lots of topics, and to be honest very few posts, which is having a detrimental effect, I wonder if a board this age needs that many topics/threads pre launch, one example is the Web Design, 12 topics only 4 replies.
I would advise sitting back and taking a long hard look at the forums and categories you have created, because your board is way past my scrolling limit in some area’s.
Posts
Just over 420 posts, and 300 of those being yours is not launch quality, you need at least double that before going public, if you don’t the forum looks quiet, it lacks interest, people take a quick look and go, having too many topics can be more detrimental than positive. Take out posting packages/post exchanges to build up the count, make sure you trim the amount of topics first or they will be spread too thinly around the board, use a variety of promotion forums for this, then it will look better, giving you a wider range of views and posting styles.
Content
Because of there being only around 100 posts from non admin members, the quality of the posts is not a concern, the quantity is though, you need to promote this board, and in every way possible for it to be a success. For me there is too much un-answered content which as I have said makes the forums look unused.
Final Remarks
First impressions are let down by the amount of posts and the number of unanswered topics, that needs addressing straight away, a lot of work needs to be done on SEO, and promoting the forum, you are in a very competitive genre, so you have to stand out, the “warrior” and “brave” theme’s will help you do that, but you cannot rely on those alone.
Your target now should be improving your presence on the net, SEO, Web Directories, even down to posting on other forums, affiliate links, and getting your name around the local schools/colleges, etc enlist the help of siblings/friends for this.
You say you’ve put a lot of hard work into the forum, and it is evident you have, now that amount of hard work has to be put into promoting it.
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