Discussion Academy ~ Feedback and Review

[Deleted member 17779]

Website Name: Discussion Academy
Website Link: http://discacademy.forumotion.pro/
When was your website founded?: It was opened to the public today, 04/27/2015
Which would you like?: Standard Review
Notes: While providing a review, if you find something that you think needs to be fixed or changed then I am open to (and would appreciate) any suggestions on how to improve that area. Thank you!

 

[Cierra]

Your Review is In Progress!​

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Thank you for requesting feedback. I have tagged your thread, and will finish an official review within at most 72 hours. In the meantime, you will receive informal feedback from other reviewers and members at Forum Promotion. Once your official review is complete, you will be free to ask questions and receive feedback so long as your website remains only, and this topic remains reasonably active. You will also be able to request a re-review 14 days after this review is completed.

Thank you, and good luck!

 

[Deleted member 25872]

The first thing I noticed about your forum, was the banner at the top. I do not like this banner It is very distracting, and not really necessary. The banner needs to be smaller because at the moment, it is really big and takes up most of the page.

The theme you are using is pretty good. I really like the black in the theme. I think it makes the forum look professional and tidy.

Looking around, you have professional staff members which are active and make high quality posts and topics. You now need to now focus on getting some members to check out your forum and doing some posts and topics. Check these out, this can help you increase the amount of posts on your forum.

Posting Packages
Post and Affiliate Exchanges


I really love what you have going on here with Discussion Academy. If you take on board what I said regarding your forum. Thank you for listening to what I had to say about your forum.

 

[Cierra]

Discussion Academy
Review by @Cierra​

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First Impressions
[note]========== BEGIN - First Impressions ==========[/note]
When I first visit Discussion Academy, I see a large header image, a pleasant dark theme, and a fair amount of categories. It also takes me a second to put together the forum URL- which is: http://discacademy.forumotion.pro/ and the actual forum name, Discussion Academy. I also see a not so pleasant "Forumotion" navigation banner, I think this would best be removed in my opinion.

If there is any chance you could change your domain name, I would. It might confuse potential members or current guests, because it looks like Disc Academy. It is always good to have a domain name that matches your forum.

I would also recommend a .com, .net, .org , or another dot domain name. This gives your forum a unique and professional feel, plus it is easier to remember and improves your SEO (search engine optimization) rankings.
[note]========== END - First Impressions ==========[/note]
Good

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Site Statistics
[note]========== BEGIN - Site Statistics ==========[/note]
Discussion Academy currently has 25 messages and 3 registered users. The first thing I wonder when viewing the statistics is "how many total threads are there?". This information is not available to front end users. It is a nice little feature to add, so I recommend turning that on or installing a plugin for that if I was you.

Three members (technically one member because everyone else is staff) and twenty five posts isn't terrible at this stage of the game, it could be slightly better. Try doubling this amount each week. For example, next week reach fifty posts, the week after seventy five posts, and so on. Having a goal in mind helps it to be much more attainable. To help give your forum a boost start, try ordering some packages, paying users to post on your forum, use Post Loop, or do some post exchanges.
[note]========== END - Site Statistics ==========[/note]
Average

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Originality
[note]========== BEGIN - Originality ==========[/note]
Discussion Academy still has a ways to go in the originality department. Currently, I see Discussion Academy as just another general forum unfortunately. Although, I really like the ideas you have implemented in the "Shopping Mall"-http://discacademy.forumotion.pro/t15-shopping-mall. Keep up the good work with that. Sometimes it might be hard to innovate new ideas in a very over saturated niche, but I think there are still new ideas out there, you just have to take your time in planning, developing, and implementing them. I have some ideas for you:

1.) Hold chat events, you would plan a time and a date where users would enter the chat room of your choice (I recommend 123 Flash Chat- the link is http://www.123flashchat.com) and discuss a pre-determined topic. You could get the members involved in this by having them vote or make the ideas for each chat. You could hold this every week, month, etc.

2.) Theme contest. Every couple of months you could have a theme contest where users design a theme for Discussion Academy and the staff team would vote for the winner. The winner would get a cash or gift card prize, and you could add runner up prizes as well.

3.) You could host a scavenger hunt around the forum. Hide images or certain text/words around the forum, and have users find them. You could do it by amount (who ever finds them all first), or whoever completes the hunt the fastest.

[note]========== END - Originality ==========[/note]
Poor

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Final Remarks​

To be truly successful and take, Discussion Academy has a lot of work to do. I do think that you can do achieve that goal with some dedication and hard work, it will pay off eventually.
Start by fixing and improving everything one by one in small pieces. I enjoyed doing this review, and good luck with your forum [user]Bazinga[/user]!​

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Your Score​

 

[Tommy M.]

It was opened to the public today, 04/27/2015

I couldn't visit your forum, it is showing 404 error, it seems be created from a forum service where you can have free forum with sub domain?
If yes, why you don't go with your own domain and start a new forum with it?

 

[Migi]

Cash has been Deducted!​

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Thank you for using the Forum Promotion review service. We have deducted 100 FP$ from your account in exchange for conducting a Standard Review. You can request another review in 14 days.

​

 

[Deleted member 17779]

It was opened to the public today, 04/27/2015

I couldn't visit your forum, it is showing 404 error, it seems be created from a forum service where you can have free forum with sub domain?
If yes, why you don't go with your own domain and start a new forum with it?

Hum. I've never had a problem with the hosting service I am currently using. I will consider your suggestion though. Thank you.

 

[Migi]

I am mostly concerned about the text size of the forum. From categories/forums title to posts and topics, for my eyes the size is too small to be read comfortably. Posts are most readable from all of them. Some colors do not work that well against dark background, for example the ranks.

Good luck with the forum by the way, Bazinga!. 😉

 

[Ash]

The themes a big mismatch to be honest. It doesn't really give you that nice relaxing general discussion vibe, but more of a rpg look. If your looking into seriously considering having a big general discussion forum, step 1 would be to move away from forumotion.

 

[Deleted member 17779]

The themes a big mismatch to be honest. It doesn't really give you that nice relaxing general discussion vibe, but more of a rpg look. If your looking into seriously considering having a big general discussion forum, step 1 would be to move away from forumotion.

I have been considering adding an RPG section the forum.

 

[Tommy M.]

The big impressive part on your forum is top header banner.

Overall looks good but lacking of posts and members activate on your forum.

You need to do marketing more for it to increase traffic and new members.

I would suggest you should use your own domain for it instead of using a sub domain as now.

Good luck with your site!

 

[Deleted member 17779]

The big impressive part on your forum is top header banner.

Overall looks good but lacking of posts and members activate on your forum.

You need to do marketing more for it to increase traffic and new members.

I would suggest you should use your own domain for it instead of using a sub domain as now.

Good luck with your site!

Thank you for the comments and suggestions.

 

[John]

When I first come upon your forum, I'm greeted with a sound of music (I had my sound turned on). It's kind of annoying to have as the first thing I see when walking into a site. I would recommend change the default so that music doesn't play unless you press a play button. I'd also recommend a TLD.

Good luck! 🙂

 

[Cam]

I personally don't care for the plain slogan text under the header. I would remove that text altogether, and then put the slogan on the actual banner. Also, huge header images are kind of a thing of the past. If you're going to have it, I would recommend doing a little bit more to it. Perhaps you could give the banner rounded corners or something?

Is there a way to remove the "Moderators: Administrators, Manager, Moderator" text on each individual board? It's very repetitive, and it doesn't really tell you anything anyways.

The themes a big mismatch to be honest. It doesn't really give you that nice relaxing general discussion vibe, but more of a rpg look. If your looking into seriously considering having a big general discussion forum, step 1 would be to move away from forumotion.

I agree about the theme. Everything about the forum shouts RPG to me. I can see that there is now a RPG section added though. As far as Forumotion goes, I don't feel like telling someone to get off of a free forum host is valid criticism. There are different types of forum owners. Some are willing to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on software like XenForo, some are only willing to pay for a domain and hosting, and some aren't looking to spend any money at all. There's nothing wrong with that.

I will say that not everyone is going to like your dark theme. Do you have a variety of themes available to choose from in the UCP? I would recommend having at least one light theme as an option.

When I first come upon your forum, I'm greeted with a sound of music (I had my sound turned on). It's kind of annoying to have as the first thing I see when walking into a site. I would recommend change the default so that music doesn't play unless you press a play button. I'd also recommend a TLD.

Good luck! 🙂

I agree with this 100%. I think you should have the music disabled by default. I was startled by the music at first. Mind you, the SCM Music Player is a cool little feature, especially seeing as it continues to play as your browse the forum. A TLD would be nice, but if you aren't looking to spend any money, there's nothing wrong with having a sub-domain.

 

[Migi]

I am one of the people who likes the music touch. It is not too annoying for me because the song is not too rock and loud so it didn't startle me as much. At least there's also pause button so I can stop and play the music when I want. To me, as long as the music is set in low volume, I can live with it and it may not surprise people as much. But this is also a subjective issue, so it will different from person to person.

 

[Deleted member 17779]

Thank you for the suggestions.

As far as the "theme" or "skin" goes, I've picked out a few I like. I've placed them all in a thread in the suggestion box area and I'm going to let which one they like best or if they want to keep the current "theme".

When it comes to the music, I'm letting the members on the forum vote on that as well.

 

[MasterA]

Your site looks great. I like it that you have the background music playing when someone goes on the site. I am not sure if you have the feature but I think it would be a good idea if you have an option to change to a lighter theme. I am not a fan of dark themes so would like to see a light theme option.

Your forum header also gives me the impression of a gaming forum but Discussion academy is a general discussion forum so I think you should change that.

Good luck with your forum. 😀

 

[Gio]

Hi Bazinga! 😀 I'm still stuck on that being your username. 😛

To start off my review, I wanted to bring up the name. I'm rather confused as to the choice of Discussion Academy. When I go on your forum, I was expecting to have like a educational or school feel with either the forum names, or even the usergroups. I didn't really see any of that which is a bit confusing since the name doesn't seem to match up to be honest.

While I love the music you have auto playing(Which I'm now listening to Enya thanks to your forum on YouTube 😀), I don't know if it would be best to leave it as auto playing. I remember back when Myspace was popular, and certain music would auto play when going on to a specific profile chosen by that individual. I normally heard that many people were not fans of having the music autoplay as it would slow their connection and just was an overall distraction. That could have been due to the choices of music on certain profiles. If it's possible though, I think it would be beneficial to have an option to disable the music autoplaying. I personally have no issue with it though. 🙂

As far as design aspects, I know you said you've looked into picking out a few themes. I would go for some light colors in the theme, and something that isn't cluttered. I say that since I've seen a ton of Forumotion themes that have so many things going on at one time and it's super busy to where its distracting. I would also see if you could cut out the forum legend at the bottom which shows the icons for the forum sections as those should be pretty self explanatory.

One final thing, I think it would look a bit better if you removed the social buttons at the top, or at least moved them to another location. I never understood why Forumotion had them there since those tend to be at the bottom of the forum since they're not in the way. Another great place would be to maybe put them below the navigation bar. 🙂

Best of luck with your forum! 😀

 

[Deleted member 17779]

Your site looks great. I like it that you have the background music playing when someone goes on the site. I am not sure if you have the feature but I think it would be a good idea if you have an option to change to a lighter theme. I am not a fan of dark themes so would like to see a light theme option.

Your forum header also gives me the impression of a gaming forum but Discussion academy is a general discussion forum so I think you should change that.

Good luck with your forum. 😀

Hi Bazinga! 😀 I'm still stuck on that being your username. 😛

To start off my review, I wanted to bring up the name. I'm rather confused as to the choice of Discussion Academy. When I go on your forum, I was expecting to have like a educational or school feel with either the forum names, or even the usergroups. I didn't really see any of that which is a bit confusing since the name doesn't seem to match up to be honest.

While I love the music you have auto playing(Which I'm now listening to Enya thanks to your forum on YouTube 😀), I don't know if it would be best to leave it as auto playing. I remember back when Myspace was popular, and certain music would auto play when going on to a specific profile chosen by that individual. I normally heard that many people were not fans of having the music autoplay as it would slow their connection and just was an overall distraction. That could have been due to the choices of music on certain profiles. If it's possible though, I think it would be beneficial to have an option to disable the music autoplaying. I personally have no issue with it though. 🙂

As far as design aspects, I know you said you've looked into picking out a few themes. I would go for some light colors in the theme, and something that isn't cluttered. I say that since I've seen a ton of Forumotion themes that have so many things going on at one time and it's super busy to where its distracting. I would also see if you could cut out the forum legend at the bottom which shows the icons for the forum sections as those should be pretty self explanatory.

One final thing, I think it would look a bit better if you removed the social buttons at the top, or at least moved them to another location. I never understood why Forumotion had them there since those tend to be at the bottom of the forum since they're not in the way. Another great place would be to maybe put them below the navigation bar. 🙂

Best of luck with your forum! 😀

First of all, I want to thank you both for your input.

I have a few "themes" or "skins" picked out. Some are light and some are dark. Right now, I have a thread open with all of the ones I have picked out and I am letting my members pick the one that they like the best. You are more than welcome to add your opinion and advice in that discussion if you want.

I have also removed the social buttons that were at the top of the page.

Again, thank you for your input.

 

[Geoffrey]

The music makes your site look a little spammy honestly, it's a turn off for me.

Your theme is also really dark, too dark honestly. It's hard for me to read and the font color doesn't help at all. I can barely read the links on your theme (brown on black is not a good choice).

Your layout (of forums) is also really long and you don't have near enough content in each section to make that warranted. Combine some sections and make your layout a lot shorter.