Fairy Tales of Nadia Online
Full Review by pandaa
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (8 out of 20)
When I first load your forum, I personally don't really like what I see. The first thing that's thrown at the user is the very large header. It's almost around 200px tall, which is probably around 75px taller than it needs to be. Next, I see that the text on the logo is blurred, which I understand was intentional, but this is a major turnoff for me. I have to look away almost immediately. A person's eye is almost always draw to text rather than its background. Going further down the page, there is a very crowded section of header links. Later in the review, I'll cover which ones I would like to see removed. Below this, there is an affiliate image for Postloop, which I really do not like. I could understand if this matched your niche, or was something that your average visitor would like, but, this isn't what your board is about at all. Overall, I'm a bit confused on why it's located there. Seeing that ad, in addition the prominent "donate" button in the header leads me to an initial conclusion that your forum may just be a money trap. I also see a welcoming box, which I would really like to see disappear. From my perspective, if a visitor wants to participate, they know that they need to register first. So, seeing as how this box doesn't really help anyone; it's a waste of space, in my opinion. I also see a few typos, which will be pinpointed later, and that's also something that lowers your score here. Going down to your actual content, at first, I definitely notice that you have a lot of forums and subforums. As a side point, the unrelated "Advertise" board is something that really lowers the value of your board. Are all of your visitors going to be interested in that? Or is it just a scheme to get members from FP to post 50 times, simply for another backlink? Just something to think about. I like the overall color scheme of your theme, so that's a plus. Towards the bottom of the forum, I would also suggest removing the ad at the bottom, and the block of links. Having those links once on the page would honestly suffice.
Site Layout – (7 out of 20)
This is going to overlap my first impression thoughts a little bit, but some reiteration won't hurt. One thing that bugs me about the layout is how everything above the fold (where the page first loads) isn't actually content related. Instead, it's all related to the header, nav, or welcome box. So once again, I'd love to see the size of the header reduced, the welcome box removed entirely, and a few of the header links removed. As far as that goes, three of the links are dead links: Dooky Bloomers, 16 The Genius, and Purchase Our Product. I'd take those out of there, as well as the Affiliates link. Now you're left with a cleaner looking header section. If the Postloop ad is necessary for income, leave it; otherwise, it would look a lot better for your image to remove it. As far as your username styles go, they need to be more simplistic. As much as I hate using this word, they are pretty ugly, and clash with your theme badly. For your forum, I think it would be in your best interest to get rid of/merge a few forums together. To start, I'd merge the
News! and
Forum FAQ & Information sections; they're pretty much the same thing. Next, the
Miscellaneous,
Caricatures & Doodles,
Your Custom Stuff, and
FTON Role Play sections could all be merged into the larger
Fairy Tales of Nadia forum. There really isn't enough content to fill them just yet. The same goes for the
Characters Plate. There's only four topics, and those can easily belong in a more general category. There are a few other changes you could potentially make, but they wouldn't be necessary and they're more of a preference thing for me. Finally, there are a few things that need to be fixed. I'll list them here.
- The mini-profile on the postbit. It's huge, it honestly shouldn't be more than 5 or 6 lines at most.
- The advertise subforum. It needs to go. It's not what your site is about, and it makes your look rather desperate for posts.
- Non-resizing of avatar on forumdisplay. Example - http://ftononline.net/viewforum.php?f=127
Statistics and Activity – (6 out of 20)
This is definitely a weak area, so I'll try to focus my attention here as much as I can. While your actual content seems to excel (see below), your discussions aren't provoking much participation from your members. As far as I can see by looking at posts around the forum, it seems to mainly be you creating threads, and oftentimes, they're left with a very minimum amount of replies. While I can commend you for having a large portion of your board's posts, it could be a lot better. 2000 out of 6000 is good, but could definitely be improved by some thought-provoking topics. When you create topics, instead of just sharing with your visitors, try to get their opinion on things. I don't know if you currently do this, but maybe, when writing a comic, you can create a thread and ask your members what they would like to see. Or perhaps even have guest writers for plots! That way, when someone is on your site, they actually feel involved, and they have a real reason to keep coming back. This brings up another issue. On your index, it says you have over 720 topics, and over 6100 posts. Yet, when I added up your individual forums, I only could count 627 topics and just over 5000 posts. Why is this like this? I find it to be a bit deceiving, and it makes me wonder. From personal experience, which may be wrong in your case, I would find it hard to already have over 1000 posts in staff rooms or any trash boards you may. Even if that was the case, they don't really need to be counting towards the board count. Turning off the post count in those areas will give a more accurate gauge as to how you're really doing, and may open a few eyes. The last point I wanted to bring up was the lack of participation by your staff. As an admin, you need to be leading by example, and only bring on people who are willing to put in some effort. Yet, I can see a few moderators who only have a few posts! Surely, that's not the image you want to have for your site. What I would recommend is cutting back on the staff, and only keeping those who are active on the site, and with producing new ideas for how to bump up the activity levels.
Content – (14 out of 20)
I won't focus much here, but you're doing a good job. What's unique about your forum is that it was an idea that you thought of by yourself, so obviously you have a passion for it, and should be able to create new ideas for a while. Once you've already started being creative, it's not too hard to keep it going. I've read a few of your comics and story lines, and they're excellent! The only reason I knocked you down here is because of the lack of content that produces activity. Yes, you may have built up a whole world for your characters, but how are you going to get your viewers involved? One thing I suggest is to have an explanation of what FTON actually is; almost like a Wiki page. If you have one currently, I couldn't find it, so maybe it needs to be more visible. Once people understand the general synopsis behind something, they can easily get addicted to it. The end goal is to have something like a hit TV show, where people are eagerly sharing with their friends, and awaiting the next issue. But once again, this all comes down to advertising and finding the right audience.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (9 out of 20)
Besides the layout problems, there are some elements that I noticed. I'll go ahead and list them, that will be a lot more neat and easier to read.
- "Hi there, you are viewwing this forum as a guest, Why don't you join us Now enjoy our full Feaures and Discussions, i'm sure you'll have Fun!" - 'Viewwing' should only have one 'w'. 'Why' should not be capitalized, and neither should 'now', 'features', or 'discussions'. 'Feaures' is spelled features. 'i'm' needs to have a capital 'I', and 'Fun' should not be capitalized. And I would recommend taking the smiley out of the welcome box, if you choose to keep the box at all.
- New to our World? - 'your self' is one word.
- Litterature & Comics - 'Litterature' is spelled 'Literature'.
- There are various instances of using '...' or improper capitalization in forum descriptions. Those should really be fixed. The forum descriptions are often the second or third thing people will read when they come to your forum, and first impressions mean a whole lot.
If you can manage to fix some of the things I listed about the layout, your overall professionalism will also improve. Right now, I really get the impression that the forum was created by a child when I take a look at certain parts. Most of the basics are pretty good, but it's the finer stuff that really detracts from your forum's look. Make sure that when you make a forum announcement, that you have a professional attitude. Take a look at other forums and see how the administrators act around the forum. Sure, you can have fun, but you need to let your members know that you take the place seriously, and that includes using correct grammar, and a formal attitude. I apologize if English isn't your first language, and if it isn't, maybe it would be worth hiring someone to fix those things. Some visitors may not be quite as understanding, and it could mean that you're losing valuable traffic. At this stage, every pageview counts, so do your best to improve this aspect.
Total Score - (44 out of 100)
Final Remarks:
Your forum definitely has some potential. I'm glad that you've entered into a niche without much competition. It's not everyday that someone creates a comic and is willing to design a site around it. As I tried to stress, fixing the minor issues and finding an audience that appreciates your work will make or break your site. Instead of advertising at webmaster/promotion forums, look for some creative ways to contact people. I think a library would be an interesting place to advertise, if it's allowed. People there obviously are interested in reading, so maybe they would be hooked on your website if they got a chance to see it!
Strengths:
- - Unique content provided by the main comic series.
- I like the theme, it just needs some minor edits.
Weaknesses:
- - Professionalism and grammar.
- An active member base, and getting staff to participate.
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