Re: Final Fantasy Forums (Sample, Advanced, Cosmic)
Final Fantasy Forums
Review by Cosmic
My first impression with this website is a very good one. The first thing I noticed was the banner at the top, which is one of the best banners I have seen on a forum. It is very well designed, and fits the theme of your forum very well. The next thing I noticed was your content portal, which seems to be very up to date with relevant content. You have a good looking website here, particularly at first glance. I don't have very much at all to criticize in this category.
Excellent
As stated above, the design is good. However, on closer examination, it isn't quite as good as the first impression makes it out to be. The primary thing which I look for in a design is this: does the design resonate with the niche that you are appealing to. Overall, your theme gets a 4/5 in this category, because the banner is very good, and the forum icons are also final-fantasy related. However, I think there is more you could have done to create a theme which screams "Final Fantasy!"
Namely, you have a standard black theme which has been slightly customized to include a very, very good banner. The black theme is good, but it can also get a little bit monotonous once you scroll down from the header bar. I recommend adding custom icons for each individual section of your forums to make the index page more lively. Also, you can consider further customizing your skin to include more fantasy elements, rather than just a typical gaming look.
You have a very good website here. I've recommended a few improvements, but besides that, your website is very good, and is as good as most websites in your niche.
Good
Every forum has statistics, and those statistics have two aspects. One of them is what I usually refer to is content. By content, I mean posts which can be indexed by a search engine, and can make a website look more established. The other aspect to statistics is community. Community refers to posts which have been made recently. These can also be read by search engines, but their main value is in encouraging users to post more, and thereby increase your website's pageviews per month numbers.
When it comes to content, your website is top tier. There aren't too many forums with a million posts, and your forum is one of them. Congratulations! This is very good, and is, I expect, an incredible positive force for your forum's development. However, what is not thriving as much as it could be is your forum's community, and this statistic is what is most important. Only two forums on your forum index have had posts made in them today. Perhaps the day is young (it's hard to keep track with forums and their different clocks), but that is still an indicator of a slightly inactive forum. I recommend spreading posts out widely through your forum to help make this statistic look better to guests and new members.
Good
Going by your "Online today" indicator, your staff members appear to be pretty active. You have had one administrator, two global moderators, many more regular moderators, and several editorial staff members online. When comparing this list to your staff list, I noticed that several staff members have not been online within the last 24 hours. Primarily administrators. This is a bit concerning, although as it is New Years Eve today, I think it can be excused.
When going through a few staff members' posts, I noticed some spelling errors, and was also did not like how some staff members change the color of their posts' text, which can be very difficult to read. Overall, your forum seems to be doing good in this category, though.
Average
Originality is a pretty difficult thing to achieve, and even if one achieves it, is it desirable? Your forum has a purpose which is very easily identified. Your forum is about Final Fantasy, and that is clear to everyone. That fact that it has 1,000,000 posts makes it a firmly established website which has influence in its niche. While I'm certain that there are other Final Fantasy forums, your website seems to be doing pretty well in regards to standing out when compared to other forums in its niche.
Good
Overall, your forum uses a very classic structure which has never done anyone harm: meta, niche, general, other. It's what people have grown to expect from a forum in terms of how categories are ordered, and that is how you've set it up. My only recommendation is to consider the descriptions of some of the off-topic forums. It took me a little while to tell which was which because of the special names. It is important to keep these names, as to add flavor, but it is also confusing as to what is what. Can you add a single word or phrase at the beginning of each description to make it clear what that section is about (only for forums with "clever" names). For example, the forum "Midgar" would have the description "Media Discussion. Any form of news or entertainment can be discussed here." That way, people can read your descriptions much more easily, in my opinion. Different icons for each individual forum would also help in this regard.
Good
I noticed a few mistakes in a staff member's posts, as mentioned above. However, the grammar used throughout the forum's structure, such as forum names, seems to be pretty good. Keep up the good work!
Excellent
Final Remarks:
You have a very good website here. It not only has potential, but it appears to be a successful website in its own right. You need to focus on making your community thrive. That is my most important suggestion. There are a few tweaks you can make here and there to improve the website, but overall, it is a good one.
Good luck!
Your Score
