Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
Let's begin with your banner. I absolutely love it. It looks very carefully and professionally done, the text is clearly visible without being too contrasted, and the entire thing flows. I like it. Your background is also very Nintendo themed which is great. It's one of the more original backgrounds I've seen. It puts a new look on that old skin. That being said though, the skin you based off of is very old. You could get a more modern IP.Board skin versus this one that looks like something from 1.3. You could port the background, banner, and some of the icons over. That being said, there's nothing specifically wrong with your skin. It's just showing its age. I really like the carefully crafted usergroup icons, adds a special touch. A few things were a bit off though. Take a look at your New Topic button. It's like very off-center and the text almost runs over. The "» Recent News" for example is also ill-positioned. (Note: That text is going to be different everytime, but the issue happens regardless.) It needs to be spaced like one extra character, because it should be entirely in the blue, not in the metallic. I know this seems minor, but it's noticeable.
(Scored 18/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
I'm not going to begin on your forum layout yet. I'm going to talk about the physical, technical layout. There were some oddities. First off, your forum isn't fluid which is really frustrating for me, who works on a very large screen. No matter what size, your forum stays the same width and fails to readjust. On my 22-inch monitor, I was honestly seeing 2 times as much background as I was forum. As pretty as the background is, it shouldn't be the main thing I'm seeing. If you could update the skin to be fluid, that would make your forum ready for when monitors get even larger and would help out more users. Another thing was in the memberlist. If you had a user with an exceptionally long username, it would glitch up their entry and it really would not look right at all. Let me know in a reply if you'd like an example of such a member.
Moving onto the actual forum layout…
I don't know, it's a bit…unexciting. You've got a total of like 5 Nintendo boards and then right under it have a bunch of ones that aren't directly related to Nintendo. Maybe you could add a Vintage Console board or a Nintendo WiFi board or Friend Code sharing board. I mean, look at all the possible forums you could have. Your off-topic forums are fine, but you need a few more on-topic ones to balance it out.
(Scored 15/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
I understand your forum transitioned to a new one last year. Usually forums lose a large chunk of activity after such a move, but you seem to be doing just fine. 69K+ posts is very good, and your forum seems to be flourishing. All of your forums had a good amount of topics in them which is nice to see. Your community seems to be involved in what goes down on your forum and that's good to see. It feels like a community on your forum, which is what a forum should strive for. I saw some members that had tons of posts and seem devoted. Your activity is all in all pretty much perfect. I would feel bad even daring to take off a point for a community such as yours.
(Scored 20/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
Oh this should be fun. Let me begin by saying I read hcfwesker's review, and saw Staff Moderation was the number one contested argument of the review. So let me throw in my opinion about your forum.
Let me begin by saying that it's not good that you hid two of the admins from the staff list. That's not a good move and doesn't evade the issue at all, in fact, it makes less sense. If you're trying to hide their staff positions so you don't seem overstaffed, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The fact is, inactive admins simply shouldn't be admins. If they don't do anything, then what should you do? Make them a hidden admin that they still have powers if they want to come back and use them, but nobody else can see. Or give them a VIP rank so that they just appear as an important member. What's wrong with keeping them admin (as in, rank visible)? Well, let's say a newbie comes to your forum, sees a post by one of them, and PMs them from help. (And yes, this is likely to happen. Trust me.) They're unlikely to get a response and if they do it will probably be to ask another admin for help. What sort of message does that send out? I understand having positions for honorary members who deserve them, but when it's a full-out, fully visible and regular-looking admin position, it doesn't look good. At all. A VIP rank would still honor them and preserve their powers, but stop them from being actual admins that people are going to want to see do things and PM for help.
So moving on from that, 3 mods is fine. I have no arguments there. In fact, with 2 admins and 3 mods you would be at the perfect number. That's a good amount for your forum, and I think you all would make a good team. All of your mods were active on the day I visited which is very good, and while I didn't have time to dig deep into how they acted around the forum, I'm sure you have the ability to pick good mods.
(Scored 15/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I did notice a few things:
"Come here to post suggestions as to how we could improve the forum! Also, if you are needing Tech-help [Like programming], ask here." really could be worded better. It could be grammatically correct by saying, "Come here to post suggestions as to how we could improve the forum! Also, if you are needing technical help, like programming, ask here."
"This is where you can discuss the new Nintendo Wii and its games and exchange system codes!" is a run-on sentence and should be something such as, "This is where you can discuss the new Nintendo Wii. Also you may discuss its games and exchange system codes!"
"The most recent handheld from Nintendo, featuring a touch screen (in addition to a normal screen), built in microphone, and free online play, it's the thing that everyone's talking about. Talk here." is also run-on and should be, "The most recent handheld from Nintendo, featuring a touch screen (in addition to a normal screen), built in microphone, and free online play. It's the thing that everyone's talking about. Talk here."
"Post your video game [or any for that matter] fan art here! (Normal image posting rules apply)" should be, "Post your video game [or any for that matter] fan art here! (Normal image posting rules apply.)"
"Talk about what's going on in the news around the world. Also you can debate here, just keep it under control
😉" should be, "Talk about what's going on in the news around the world. Also, you can debate here; just keep it under control.
😉"
"Spam at your hearts content if you're bored, or you can have fun playing some forum games. *Posts made here will not contribute to your post total*" should be, "Spam at your heart's content if you're bored, or you can have fun playing some forum games. *Posts made here will not contribute to your post total.*"
Those were pretty minor though, but they do need to get fixed.
(Scored 17/20)
Total Score - 85 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: Your forum has improved its score. Very nice.
What was most liked about the website/forums: The community feel, the activity.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: Skin elements.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? I think I'll go ahead and join up because I see you post the reviews up. I want to be able to comment on any feedback, because I love getting feedback.
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