Full Review by phio_chan, Red Herring, and Twisted Fairytale
Good morning, readers! The Review Team of Forum Promotion is back with another review. The name of the forum we shall be reviewing today is “Forum Promotion”.
…
Yeah, that look, we know! Today, we shall be reviewing the very website that the Review Team calls home; a review catering to the website that we dedicate our work to. On this day, the Review Team will do what it does best: critique and criticize our own employers! Now that’s exciting. However, that means this review will obviously be biased, right? Surely, we, the review team; we who enjoy working at this beloved website, lovingly typing up the reviews we so enjoy writing, could not possibly criticize our own place of work, right? Ah ha. Ah ha ha ha. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Mwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! *Ahem* Well, we will leave that for you to decide after you finish reading the review.
The Review Team has decided that there are several aspects that we all want to cover. And that is why, in this wonderful chance the entire team shall be writing a cooperatively written review, featuring critique from each member of the current Review Team: phio_chan, Twisted Fairytale and Red Herring. We hope that you’re just as excited as we are, although it’s doubtful anyone could match our bated anticipation at this current moment in time. Unfortunately, it must remain bated for just a little bit longer. Please allow our team the courtesy of a quick introduction.
Review Team Leader - phio_chan
I’m first, cool! Actually I’m not good with introduction, so… Let’s just say that this is one of the best special requests I’ve ever had during my years working in forums, and especially during my stay at this forum as a reviewer. My team members and I are all looking forward to this review, writing as awesome as we could despite our busy schedules, so hopefully we can deliver something satisfying to everyone who reads this review out there! And before any of us got fired after publishing this review (lol), let me just say that I’m thankful to be here. *fades out from the screen* Oh, we are going to use a color system for this review, so when it is in this color it means I’m the one talking!
Review Team Member - Twisted Fairytale
Well well well, it has come time to review the site I have called home for a long while. Thinking back, Forum Promotion has stuck with me for about five years now, and I’ve seen so many shades of our community. It’s hard to criticize and pick apart something that you hold dear, but, for science! In all seriousness, the whole team is super excited for this review, and we are all expecting a beat-down from the admins after we publish it. Hah, all in good humor, apparently. Anyway, I do hope that you enjoy the opinions of our skilled review team, so sit back, relax, and if this is anything like Red Herring’s normal reviews, grab some popcorn and energy drinks! This is going to be a long ride! And when you see this color, it means it’s my turn to share my opinion.
Review Team Member - Red Herring
Aha! We save myself for last, do we? Very well! I am everyone’s favorite inexistent fish!cat reviewer, otherwise known as Red Herring. It is my deepest pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am known for being one of the most long-winded reviewers at Forum Promotion! But if you want thorough, oho, I will give you thorough! It has long been my desire to perform a takedown tackle of Forum Promotion in review, and today, I finally get my chance. It shall be glorious! And if you see text of this color, it means that I am the current speaker within the review.
And those are the introductions! What, already impatient to read the review? Okay, we’ll stop the chit chat here and get straight to business.
WARNING #1: We don’t even know how long this article would be, given that three brains are doing it and those brains all love to write and talk a lot… So proceed with caution.
WARNING #2: Due to the amazing length, this review will be divided into parts in separated posts.
We hope you enjoy reading this review!
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (10 out of 20)
”She’s seen better years, but she’s still served us well.”
Back in 2008, the year of its original conception, Forum Promotion’s design was pristine. Advanced. Top notch. Downright glorious. It was certainly one of the greater phpBB3 designs of its time. However, this theme has continued its service all the way to our present year of 2013, having seen little in the way of updates along the way. So the question to ask here: Has Forum Promotion’s design withstood the test of time, and remained as an advanced forum design that’s easy to use and pleasant on the eyes? Internet technology, website design included, ages faster than milk. But perhaps Forum Promotion’s design is more akin to a bottle of fine wine, with age only adding to its delectable flavor? Let’s find out, shall we?
It’s a general consensus that the answer to Red Herring’s question here is no. Even from someone like myself who just about hates change, returning to the most wondrous forum that I have called home since 2008 to find it almost the exact same, aesthetically, was pretty depressing. The theme and elements seem very outdated. Honestly, I’m not even sure if the banner has changed since I took a break from the forum a long while back. This is clearly a negative on the part of Forum Promotion’s. A good forum will embrace its appearance and keep content and design up to date. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for Forum Promotion.
I would also vote for a no. I don’t mean to say I don’t enjoy the current theme, no. To me Forum Promotion has a great first impression. Of course, as a forum which started around 6 years ago and is still around until today, going strong with the activity, it’s a wonderful forum to join. However, I personally like something new every once in a while. I registered way back in 2010 and I think it was only recently that the banner was changed. I could be wrong, though. Getting a new theme means quite a sum of money, yes. But perhaps the changes could be minor things? Like updating banners, icons, ranks, buttons, or something similar. There are various ideas which can be used for them, since “forum/website promotion”, “advertisement”, “webmaster”, or “online community” can bring up quite lots of images to use to refresh the atmosphere. Not everything can be done too often, true, but even small details can give a whole new feeling, really. If any readers are not aware yet, in your User Control Panel there are actually three themes installed for use in the forum. But after checking the other two themes out, it’s too painful to use them compared to the currently default theme (FPX) so unfortunately the other themes are out of league.
The Review Team has spoken! Just to wrap up the theme section: Forum Promotion offers a rather out of date theme. Although the style has become a statement of FP’s uniqueness, there is often a time for change, and that time has come. As Phio has mentioned, change can be as small as new icons, banners, or ranks. Change could also come as large as replacing the whole theme, which is close to what needs to happen. The theme is simply out of date, how ever wonderful it is, and needs to be addressed. First Impressions and Appearance has unfortunately lost a few points for Forum Promotion’s old theme.
Before we move on to the next part of the appearance, I want to raise a quick question about the advertisement banner we see at the right part of the header, right next to the website/forum banner. What do you guys think about it? Perhaps I am rather OCD, but I don’t feel comfortable looking at an advertising banner there. I suppose my mindset is still of the old one(?) that a header is for the banner or news for important events happening, not for a service. I think it would’ve been better if the banners there join the ones right before the body of the index. I’m already used to it by now, but I remember the days when I feel somehow annoyed looking at an advertisement at the header.
I could not agree more with our fearless leader, Phio here! Our banner ad does seem rather intrusive, and takes up much space. On top of that, it’s just kind of there. There are no borders around the area to displace it from the rest of our banner, so it sits with hard sides against a theme consisting mostly of curves. So, I’m sure we are not the only ones that have “OCD-Moments” about our banner. One way that this could be remedied would be to add a small border around the ad, or just remove it all together! I understand that this is a promotion forum, but those ads don’t even come as a service on the forum. Overall, it kind of just disrupts some space that would look better without it.
Alright, time to move on! I suppose for appearance, we can break down the discussion into two parts: one pertaining the front page, and another one is about the forum.
Wait, we have a front page? ...Oh! Yes, that’s right! We have a front page! Excellent! I tend to forget that fact due to how little I use it. Such a silly cat I am, but it is not simply misplaced amnesia. There is a reason that I tend to forget we have a front page so often. But we'll get to that later! For now, I shall focus on the aesthetics side of things. For those of you asking the question, “Front page? What front page?”, or those who have forgotten it entirely, allow me to quickly (re)introduce you to the glorious Forum Promotion front page!
”Fascinating!”
Well, that’s something, isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong, my eyes are certainly not displeased with the entrée of design presented before me. Its content is filled to the brim with CSS boxes, all of which are generally quite pleasant to look at, consisting of a white background with a pronounced silver gradient. Oh, and I am certainly loving those stock icons currently being used to spruce the home page up with a bit of color, and I do mean that without any trace of sarcasm. I have seen a few of these icons before, and am slightly disappointed in the lack of ingenuity, but they really do work in this case.
It should be noted that this homepage is a coin with two sides to it, as shown by the screenshots above. The side whose face you see will depends upon whether one is logged in or not. If you are unregistered or simply not logged in, the page will show you Forum Promotion’s signature login box as well as displaying step-by-step process for registering and using Forum Promotion in the sidebar. Meanwhile, logged in users will be greeted with...a big blank CSS box reading “You are currently logged in, Proceed to Forums.” and sidebar information on utilizing Forum Promotion. Well, it doesn’t make quite the impact as its flip-side brother does, but I do highly appreciate an element such as this, one that adds practicality as well as a pretty sight. Good show.
There really isn’t much else I can say in terms of aesthetics here, as there’s not much in the way of actual aesthetics to grade. But if I can offer a complaint...
”Because of this, a puppy has died.”
Ooooh! How DARE that box decide to slightly misalign itself! This irritates me much more than it should. Call it an OCD, but whenever I take the rare stroll to the Forum Promotion home page, that misaligned box always steals my attention, and I always find myself wanting to realign it, but I simply don’t have the power! It’s torture! Pure agonizing torment!
I completely share what Red Herring says about the misalignment. A puppy in my heart dies too because of it. Long live OCD! Aside from the misalignment, I like what I see in the front page. The header and footer will be discussed while talking about forums. But for the front page itself, I like the organization of the boxes, the usage of corresponding icons to reflect the ideas proposed, the way a specific idea has a redirection link right to the service(s), and the highlights given to special winners of the forum. Since this front page act as a portal, I feel that it already has most important information from the forum, and it’s visually pleasing.
Moving on to the very core of “Forum Promotion”, the forum itself! Here we’ll talk about the index page of the forum and the appearances inside and out. Starting from the index page, the category/forum icons tickle me. Probably because I have seen many forums out there which offered gorgeous category/forum icons, completely customized, reflecting the idea of the category/forum very well, that I feel what we have here is slightly off the par. As Red Herring said above, this theme was made years ago and it was probably quite a hype back then (I hadn’t joined yet so I couldn’t tell) but that’s to be expected if little to no changes were made during the years. Same goes to the buttons, ranks, and thread tools. Forum Promotion once became the set point of this genre, something new and different and strong. Would you like to give it a try once more to become unusual by making something different?
Couldn’t hurt to make an attempt to do so, at least. Well, I suppose it technically could, but if it ended up a failure, we’d still have the default Forum Promotion theme to revert back to. I am in agreement with my comrades in that the Forum Promotion design has not aged particularly well, but I would be outright lying if I said there were some elements that did not still hold up to this day. I think that many would agree with me in that we fondly regard the blue diagonal stripes set in the background outside of the index proper. It’s always certainly been the most memorable element of Forum Promotion for me, with its consistent and well-blended shades of blues in its never-ending twists of diagonal shaping.
And not everything in Forum Promotion’s design remains glued to the past. The logo has gone over several redesigns in the past few years, to positive effect. Although we’re in holiday mode at the present moment in time (with a gorgeous logo designed by Kik, I might add), our current logo is one that definitely invokes a sense of identity...using stylized but professional text coupled with an image that could not represent the forum better: statistics bars. Sleek and shine combined, it’s a fresh example of change that makes me feel that the rest of the Forum Promotion design could do just as well if it let go of its past.
The sides of the index feel great, and while the header has its flaws (as noted by Phio above), it hasn’t outgrown its stay quite yet, although it too could do with an update. So why do we feel that Forum Promotion’s age has made for distaste within such a shiny little blue apple of glory? Well, simple, one need only look into the middle to find out. It’s indeed a very shiny apple on the outside, but the core has rotted and leaves a disappointing aftertaste. The forum and category design themselves feel quite retro, with minimal curves, minimal space and what feels to be an ancient form of gloss effect. The forum icons, images I once admired, no longer make an impression and feel quite generic, lessening the identity factor for Forum Promotion. The slight shadow gradient found in the forum information area further adds to the feeling of age...and while it compliments the rather retro category headers and generic forum icons, it does not compliment a Forum Promotion trying to evolve.
Wow, everyone is taking words from my mouth! Perhaps it is because I am the last one to fill in my spaces… Such a procrastinator… Anyway: Red Herring has hit a nail on the head, and I would like to make a short comment. While we have said earlier that the theme is old and outdated, the theme is actually well designed and created. What the problem we have is exactly what RH just mentioned: The style “does not compliment a Forum Promotion trying to evolve.” Boom. Things feel antique, old, old fashioned. It feels like FP is just here, on its way to the grave. Noooooo, don’t let it! If Forum Promotion would like to see a brighter future, a good place to start would be the theme. I beg the administrators now: this is not a slight issue! But enough with me raving like a mad man. Let’s see what else Herring has to say!
If I could point out my primary issue with Forum Promotion, it’s not just that the forum design feels so incredibly outdated these days. I could live just fine with an antique Forum Promotion, although I would prefer otherwise. No, allow me to point out my primary issue with aesthetics at Forum Promotion.
”GOOD GOD, MAN, COVER YOUR SHAME!!”
Good LORD, just look at all of those exposed links! Sitting there brazenly, out in the open! With their texty unmentionables so blatantly exposed to the public. Someone needs to cover them up immediately! But before you get the wrong impression, it’s not the fact there are numerous links I find to be so inelegant here, it’s the fact that they’re implemented in such a cluttered fashion. Could they not be added in a more aesthetically pleasing fashion? I perfectly understand that many of those links are important, but they’re such an eyesore with just how many of them there are out in the open like that. And it’s not just an issue of aesthetics, but also one of functionality and practicality, which I’ll talk about more in “Site Layout.”
And I do wish I could say that those links are the only clutter that Forum Promotion has lying about, but it certainly is not. Forum structure is just so imbalanced and feels squeezed...constricted...as though it’s having the life sucked out of it. And then...there’s this.
”That’s a loooooooooooooooot of text.”
Don’t get me wrong. As hideous as it looks, I very much appreciate all of that statistical data being within my view, but that doesn’t change the fact that it looks rather grotesque with how bloody long it is. Not to mention, some of that information could certainly be implemented in a better fashion. Social networking links, for instance, could go into the header (after a redesign) or footer. Speaking of the footer, I believe a comrade of mine had something to say?
*singing* “Step one, she says we need to talk…” Wait. My turn? Well.. *ehem* where were we? The footer! Yes, look at that MONSTROUS wall of text! Is Forum Promotion trying to show off all of those visitors in the last 48 hours? If so, I’m not impressed. We have seen better days, but we’ll get back to that! From an appearance standpoint, it’s just bloooooodyy ugly! I love to see who was online, and who is, just to tell if staff are doing their job, or the people I stalk are online, but geeezz, could we not get a collapsable category or something over here? As Herring as said, it’s just a block. Many of these elements can be implemented in other areas easily to clear up the footer. This however, can go into the total redesign we are pushing for Forum Promotion.
Apparently I’m the person least annoyed with the block of text at the footer. I do share the feeling that the who-was-online list was too long; it showed lovely facts about the forum activity but nothing more than that. If we wanted to leave it so long, perhaps more important points, like social networking for example, to be placed in a place where visitors and members can see it for a better exposure. My OCD brain also doesn’t really approve using the same image for who-is-online and who-was-online texts. But all in all, the footer is pretty and tidy although it is indeed long and some elements can be re-organized for a cleaner look.
Wow, did we really just do that? *counts* Twenty-six paragraphs on a First Impressions and Appearance review. Just in conclusion, we have touched on many, many points that should be addressed and generally lower the score. These included: the frontpage, navigation bar, header links and text, overall theme and style, and the footer. To wrap it all up in a few sentences: Forum Promotion boasts a well-made but old theme that has constant flaws that can discomfort / impede the user. There is a front page that may not be needed or is in need of a serious overhaul. Throughout the style, there are areas of unorganized links and blocks of text that are unappealing. Although the theme is well-made, there have been additions that lower the aesthetic appeal, such as the upper-right ad. Forum Promotion lacks an up-to-date theme and is in need of some crucial modifications.
[Part 1 of 4]
