Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
When I viewed your site I thought it was going to be a bit like the older one, on vBulletin, new services, and well some new stuff. I didn't quite feel it when I viewed your site as Forum Lair has been around for nearly a year now when someone else owned it but I wasn't sure if you knew. Anyway the theme was nice, neat, and smooth. It was the images that let me down, for a start I will start from your banner and work my way down. Your banner image looked perfect and represented the forum very well, but the text let your down the most. I think you should focus on adding gradients, and making the font regular instead of italics. Also it was hard to read the slogan and yet it should be regular instead of italics, and possibly a pixel bigger or two. The banner ad seemed to have attracted more attention than the actual banner, I know you may be gaining some money from this but it isn't the best place to put it. Perhaps under a category or somewhere in the footer. I really liked the way the navigation bar was thought of as it gave the feeling of vBulletin, and looked great. Although I think that the different colours should be made one colour and only one colour, also removing your links and possibly placing Competition Starting Soon may help attract more entries. I liked your category image and posting icons, very good indeed.
(Scored 18/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
I wasn't quite sure of each category header title having ''Lair'' in it as it didn't quite make sense. I wasn't sure as I probably would feel comfortable with, Lair One, Lair Two, Lair Three as seeing lair next to each title doesn't feel right in a way, it is hard to decscribe. The forums where laid out very well but I would focus on more of a webmaster type theme than service theme. Your Resource and Admin Lair are a bit the same in a way, Interviews relates to Administration, Marketing relates to administration and the other two forums can be add-ons. I would also consider adding Marketing & Promotion Tips, Monetize Your Forum, Members Appraisals, and possibly a few off your own idea's chucked in. I thought you could add more general discussion as their ain't much to discuss, perhaps some Entertainment, movies, music, news/world happenings forum and just expanding more and more. Honestly your footer looked cluttered, it looked like a mess with the Button Ads, Staff Affiliates headers. Perhaps placing button ads at the header where the coloured links are in the navigation bar and also means the more chance of the service to be used.
(Scored 16/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Considering you have been open a month and a half statistics aren't bad at all. Although when viewing your forums I could only tally up about 3,000 posts. Try filling up the forums with five topics per day from each staff member as they say, members hate creating new topics. Also tweaking your services around and playing with them to bring more requests may work, just need to think fast. Activity levels are good, I saw three staff members on when I was viewing but haven't saw a member for the past half an hour. Just try promoting, post exchanges, constant packages, and continuess never ending posting and you may smell sweet success in the end of it all.
(Scored 16/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
7 staff members seem all right for a forum with more than 7 members but I think perhaps removing one or two couldn't go a miss as you don't seem to active at the minute. Other than that you do not need anymore staff. I would also watch who you hire as I have some bad experience with some of your staff members and just watch who you trust also. Your staff's post seem very good, although I would watch some of the critique team's puncuation and it is quite bad in some places. Other staff's spelling seems bad but Lexic's is really bad so watch out for him personally. I also like some of your posts ad the rules are quite nicely laid out, well done.
(Scored 17/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
When a guests first views a forum and they don't quite understand what a forum is like I did at first, they are going to read descriptions of course and yours can be worked on. When viewing the critique's team description, it said ''forum reviewed'' should it not say ''forum critisized'' and also making it a little bit more descriptive too. Also working on other descriptions too, although spelling seems good enough, so does grammar. Also watch some of your staffs post, and correct them where they are wrong.
(Scored 18/20)
Total Score - 85(Out of 100)
Final Remarks:
Good forum that can go a long way.
What was most liked about the website/forums: The thought and dedication put into the forum.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: Some staff members, watch who you hire in the future.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Improving on filling more sections up with posts.
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