First Impressions: (8 out of 10)
I wasn't sure what to think of your forum when I saw "Envy Forums" for the first time. That's an interesting name for a forum. How did you come up with that name for your forum? I was really shocked when I noticed that you had that many members and discussions on your forum even though you just recently opened (it's a good kind of shocked, not a bad shocked). There are a lot of things that I noticed upon first inspection but I'm not discussing them here because they are mentioned elsewhere in this review. So I'll let you move on with the rest of this review.....
Number of Posts & Members: (9 out of 10)
The number of members and posts that you have is pretty awesome for a forum that just opened to the public on the 13th of July. It is great that you got some activity going before opening your forum to the public. A lot of people have opened a forum with a bunch of empty space and expected people to just post for them. It requires you and and any staff members available to do a lot of posting in the beginning to get things going. Or you can even ask friends if they don't mind helping you out. The one thing you'll have to keep an eye on is keeping that going now that you are open to the public. You can't stop or slow down or loose your momentum at this point.
Activity Level: (9 out of 10)
It's great that you have the widgets on the right hand side of your forum that show the recent posts and the statistics of your forum. However, I would move those closer to the top. You will want to show those off to guests and potential members because they will want to see an active and thriving community. Here are a couple of things you can do to help continue that: 1)you can request a package from the
Package Team here at Forum Promotion and 2) you can go to the "post & affiliates exchange" area of Forum Promotion and request to do some exchanges with other people that have forums.
Site Structure: (10 out of 20)
In the "Official" section of the forum, you have the News, New Member Introductions, Goals, Community Games, Contests and Suggestions all crammed into the "Community Related" area. Then you have "Community Support" where members can ask questions. To me, that seems a bit lop sided and it also seems a bit disorganized to me. In order to make everything easier to find, I'd have it separated out this way:
- News & Goals would be combined into one area
- New Member Introductions would receive their own area
- Suggestions would be combined with the "Community Support" area
- Contests and Community Games would be combined into one area
There is also something that puzzles me. I'm trying to figure out why the "Technology" area is where it is. To me, it doesn't make sense to have the "Technology" and the "Marketplace" together in it's own separate area. I would move the "Technology" area to the "General Discussion" section. Then you could combine the "Marketplace" and the "Group" areas into it's own section.
Design Quality: (12 out of 20)
I appreciate the fact that you have a dark "theme" and a light "theme" for your forum. There has always been a big debate over which one people prefer....the light or the dark. I think part of it has to do with the niche` of the forum. For example, if you have a forum dedicated to the horror genre (regardless if it's movies, books, games or something else), it would make sense to have a dark "theme" on your forum as opposed to having a light "theme". But since the niche` of your forum is more of a general niche`, you've opted to give your members a choice and let them choose between a light or a dark. There is one thing I want to point out. There is a big, wide open area at the bottom of the forum where the discussions end. I'm not really a big fan of the empty space and I would see what you could do to get rid of it.
Originality: (6 out of 15)
Your forum isn't really original. I've seen lots of forums that are general in nature. So, you're going to have to find some way of standing out from the crowd. If you old some kind of contest or giveaway, you'll have to do something that is different. Rather than holding a posting contest or something similar that is pretty common, try coming up with a fun game.
Spelling, Grammar & Professionalism: (10 out of 15)
I couldn't find anything that sticks out as far as the spelling and the grammar. There may be some minor spelling or grammar mistake that will pop up in the occasional post once in a while but that sort of thing happens. Something I want to bring up is the staff. I couldn't find any staff members other than yourself listed as the administrator. Now, you may not think you need a lot of staff members when you first start a forum. But there are a lot of things that the staff can help you with working on a forum. Other than moderating around the forum, your moderators could make some posts around the forum in order to help make the community look more active. They could also help you with advertising your forum.
Thing you liked best about forum: The number of posts & members is really good for a forum that is only a couple of days old.
Thing you liked least about forum: The way the forum is structured and laid out.
Overall Mark: (64 out of 100)
There are a lot of things that I like about your forum but I believe there are some room for a improvement also. I do wish the best of luck for you and your forum!
