Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
Your forum doesn't look bad, but you're using the Absolution theme. This doesn't really help your forum stand out; Absolution is one of the most widely used themes for phpBB 3. You might want to add some custom elements to the theme if you insist on using Absolution. I also am not a big fan of your banner; it seems blurry, and the gradients don't seem to match. Overall, I think you just need a more unique appearance. Also, this doesn't really seem like much of a theme for a gaming site. You might benefit from using a theme that is specifically for a gaming forum.
EDIT: You appear to have changed your theme. The new theme is a little better because the banner at the top looks nicer, but it still doesn't really look like a gaming forum theme. It also still isn't the most unique theme in the world.
From an activity standpoint, your forum looks pretty good. You've got a good amount of posts and members, and you don't have any empty forums.
Overall, my first impression was decent, but it could have been better.
(Scored 16/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Your layout is a bit... messy. I'm not really a big fan of the categories with one or two forums. You may consider making the donator forum invisible except to those who can actually use it. That way, the layout will look tidier for the average user. I would actually recommend putting all your gaming forums in one category; the way you currently split them up seems really unorganized to me. You have "PC Gaming" under "Microsoft Discussion." People
can play games on a PC with Linux, so it seems a little silly to have that forum under "Microsoft Discussion." Plus, you don't give equal coverage to Sony. I would definitely recommend having one category for your gaming forums. Then, you can have a forum for each system. After you get that category together, you can move "PC Technology" to the "Other Sections" category. You may consider using sub-forums to divide your gaming section. You can have one category for gaming forums, and you can make several forums under that: "General Gaming Discussion," "Playstation," "Nintendo," "Xbox," and "PC Gaming." You can then put sub-forums under these forums. For example, under "Playstation," you can put sub-forums for Playstation, Playstation 2, PSP, and Playstation 3. Under Xbox, you can have sub-forums for Xbox and Xbox 360. I think that this solution would be a better way to organize your layout. Also, your "Level Up Podcast" forum should go under your top category. It doesn't look good to have a category with one forum in my opinion. You may even consider making it a sub-forum under your News forum. I believe that these suggestions will vastly improve the organization of your layout.
(Scored 12/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
According to my calculations, your forum currently receives thirty-five to forty posts per day, and you've got about 140 posts for each of your 130 members. These statistics are not terrible, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. Make sure that you're promoting yourself on lots of other gaming forums. If you make helpful posts on these forums while advertising your forum in your signature, some users may be inclined to check out your forum. Also, sending out a mass e-mail may be helpful since your forum is well over a year old. Some users may have forgotten about your forum in all that time. Also, you may consider advertising your gaming forum on gaming topsites such as XtremeTop100. There are also tips for search engine optimization and promotion here on FP. You may want to search around for those.
(Scored 9/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
You appear to have nine staff members who actually run the forum. I think that is a sufficient amount of staff members. However, many of your staff members appear to be inactive with less than one post per day. Having active staff members is extremely important. Your staff members should be constantly adding new content so that users have things to discuss. If users have more things to discuss, then you should get more posts. However, your staff members appear to do a pretty good job of welcoming new users to the forum. Just try to encourage your inactive staff members to post more.
(Scored 16/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
Some of your forums have good descriptions. However, some of them have bad descriptions, and some don't even have descriptions. Every forum should have a description that is at least one or two meaty sentences. Make sure that your descriptions thoroughly describe the forums, sell your forum, and make a good impression on prospective members. Also, you've got some capitalization errors. Remember that unless something is a specific name (like "UK Gaming," "Xbox 360," et cetera), it doesn't need to be capitalized. For example, "rabbits" does not need to be capitalized. Just work on your descriptions.
(Scored 14/20)
Total Score - 67 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks:
Strong Points: Your forum has a great post/member ratio.
Improvements to Make: You need to improve your activity, descriptions, theme, and layout.
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