Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
Your board hurts my eyes. The background is extremely cool, and it does look like hip/hop and urban-like, but it contrasts too much. Much of the forum is a dark gray or black, but then you've got bright red and whites mixed in everywhere. It's hard to focus on. I do like, however, how simplistic the look of the posts are. They're straightforward and easy to read, which helps cancel out the wild colors your forum presents. I also really like your logo, but I think it should be a little smaller. It takes up a huge amount of space at the top of your forum, which is quite unnecessary. To sum it all up, your skin is by no means horrible, but it's nothing I would ever suggest a forum to use.
(Scored 15/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
I have a few bones to pick here. First off, your forum isn't fluid. I use high-resolution monitors, so when a forum isn't fluid, it drives me insane. I want to see mostly forum, not mostly background. Second, you're using phpBB2 it appears. I strongly suggest you don't do that. It's full of security holes, it's unsupported by the phpBB team, and lacks a ton of stuff modern forums have. phpBB3 has many improvements over phpBB2. Plus, many modern looking skins are out there for phpBB2.
Moving onto your actual layout of the forums, it's really good. You only had one real off-topic forum, which is great. Many webmeisters make the common mistake of adding in a ton of general discussion/off-topic forums. I'm glad to see you weren't one of them. It will help you in the long run. The only thing I can suggest is moving the announcements board up to the top, simply because it houses the most important topics that all members need to read. Everything else (categories, etc.) is fine.
(Scored 15/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
First off, it's a really good thing that you have a domain name. People are more apt to join, because for many, those forumansion ones are a major forum turn-off. For being open as long as you have, and considering your topic is pretty specific, you're doing quite well. You should be breaking 1K soon. Most of your forums have had posts within the last few days, which is a vital thing. Not many members seem consistently active though, and some forums haven't had posts since April. Those weren't very major, however. I think once more people start to realize your forum, since it's such a specific topic, once you get quite a few members, I think they'll be loyal.
(Scored 17/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
Very nice job on not overstaffing. You only have 2 admins, which is perfect I think for a forum of your size. Both of you are very active, and post quite often. It's good to see 2 admins that participate a lot without going overboard. It's shown that both of you truly enjoy working on the forum. That's something very vital to a forum. One thing, however, that bugged me, is the way you all would welcome new members. Members of your community would do this too. You all would say, "stay active" to all of them. I understand that you want them to stay active and become a regular visitor, but it's intimidating to have a bunch of people pressuring you from the start. It's more important for them to see how the community is than to have people just straight out saying, "stay active!" to them. That's just one thing I saw. Everything else was fine.
(Scored 18/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
You could really improve your forum descriptions in this department. All of them seem to lack a period at the end. It's important that you end your sentences correctly. It looks odd otherwise. I'm going to give you a few examples of some of the other things that need to be fixed, to give you an idea of what to fix:
"Make yourself known, say hello" should be, "Make yourself known. Say hello!"
"If you make beats them put them in here and let us hear it" should be, "If you make beats, then put them in here, and let us hear them."
"New joints to share? New album you bought? Talk about Hip Hop here" should be, "Do you have new joints to share; new album you bought? Talk about hip hop here."
Those are just a few examples.
(Scored 12/20)
Total Score - 77 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: With some improvements, your forum could do really well.
What was most liked about the website/forums: Staff
What was disliked most about the website/forums: Skin, phpBB2
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? I would improve some of the main points I made above.
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