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Discussion Academy
Review by Geoffrey
Review by Geoffrey
My first impressions of Discussion Academy are mixed. First, I should say that for First Impression reviews, I like to focus on what is "above the fold" - what I see before scrolling or clicking anything on your site after loading on it. For your site (and my screen size, which is standard laptop size) I see your header area and just a few pixels of your first category. I'm impressed with the header image, and although it is a little too large, it looks nice and is not an eyesore. You've made it memorable and you've done a good job branding your site. By one thought though is "how does a dragon relate to Academy?" I would expect DA to be themed around academics or some kind of institute. Just a little confusing.
I'm glad to see you've opted to not play your music automatically, since that would be a turnoff. It is a nice feature to offer for members that want it though. For members/guests that don't want it, however, I suggest adding a "collapse" button or at least something to make it stop following you as you scroll so it's completely out of the way.
Overall, I like what I see and I'm enticed to keep looking after just seeing the top part of your site, so first impressions are good.
Good
You currently have 362 posts on your forum by 21 members. I would honestly expect this to be a lot higher since I've been seeing DA posted around for quite awhile and you're more than a week or two old. Some of your forum sections are doing okay in terms of content, but others (like your entire RPG and Promotion categories) are suffering. If those two categories don't pick up in activity soon, you may want to consider removing them or making them a lot smaller. A general discussion forum such as yours doesn't have to offer any promotion services and role playing is only liked in certain communities, yours may not be one of them.
Keep working on content and drawing in members, because any thing I liked about your site went away once I saw the low stats.
Poor
Your RPG area is something that is original, but unfortunately (as said) it's not too active. Having music on your site is a risk, but since it isn't forced on users I think it works, so props for that. Other than that, there isn't much going for your site. You've got a dragon theme going on it seems, but not much other than your header image and favicon seem to focus on that. Play that up a bit for some extra flavor, maybe. Between the lack of content and standard forum sections I see on most forums, there isn't much that makes me want to join your site unfortunately. Work on content first and as you're doing that, create content that is new, different and can't be found anywhere else. Even though you're general discussion, you can still have a small niche that your community really likes (for example, gaming might be a big favorite and that could be something you focus on in contests, forum sections, themes, etc.).
Average
Final Remarks
Initial impressions were good, but didn't stay that way for long once I saw the stats and standard layout that most forums have. Work on some unique ideas that you can offer and keep posting content.
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