Large Forum Review
First Impressions
I know you say that you will be getting a style in the next week or so, which leads me to think it would have been better to request a review then, rather than one on a style which is a basic standard Xenforo default, with no attempt to customise it whatsoever, except for the banner, which in my mind is a little on the small side.
Of course new members to the site may not know it is a Xenforo default, but my guess is that in the genre you are in, most would recognise it straight away.
So my first impression is of a site under construction,... using the notices add on to inform that this is a temporary style would have done wonders, and got you a higher mark.
(Score: 7/15)
Appearance
Casting aside the style, the general appearance is good, the layout and categories are well organised into thought out groups, saying that it’s not difficult to do as there are quite a few forums in this genre to draw inspiration from.
There's not a lot else one can say, simply because of the default style, as mentioned above I do feel the banner could be larger, I always say it should shout, not whisper.
(Score: 10/20)
Statistics and Activity
For the age of the forum, the activity is very good, 14k in topics, and over 132k posts is not to be laughed at, and having (according to stats) over 9k in members, is very good for a forum of this age. I was beginning to wonder where I was going wrong, one thing I do dislike about Xenforo from a reviewers point is the inability to sort members by stats, from what I can see, a lot of the membership have post counts well below 50, and there are not many with over 150, that to me says that either they are running out of things to talk about, or there is not enough for them to do, some could just be using the board for promotion, dropping links in signatures etc, you need to find ways of keeping them interested. In saying that you do have a decent core with over 1k in posts, they are doing wonders for keeping the activity up.
(Score: 16/20)
Ratios
You have had problems in the past in having to ban the odd member, so from that, it would seem that you and you moderation team are coping with what the Internet can throw at you in the way of idiots and spammers, I notice you have one MOD (Gamrpro) who is a good and experienced, he will be able to help you a lot, make sure you keep him interested.
Other than that there is not a lot to say, you are doing something right so keep on doing it.
(Score: 8/10)
Content
Your main content is focussed in your genre category which is very good, when it is such a narrow genre, you have also diversified a little from the genre to bring in general SEO and optimisation which again attracts a lot of posts, my only criticism would be to move the Marketing Category above the Making Money category, as it is your busiest.
The articles and posts look well informed and the discussions are good, your MODs could generate a little more debate in slower threads, but they are active enough to be considered as doing a good job.
(Score: 17/20)
Navigation
Navigation is typical Xenforo, confusing at first, but once you’ve used it for ten minutes or so it’s easy.
The only thing I would say is that the pop up forum descriptions get a little annoying after a while, I would much prefer static ones to the pop ups. Try not to increase the length of your index page further, in fact if you could even reduce it in length a little it would be a bonus, it’s reaching that point where scrolling becomes a pain, ( I hate FP for that reason lol).
(Score: 13/15)
Total Score
71/100
Final Remarks
The score has been reduced a little because of the lack of a custom style after being live for so long, in this genre you need to stand out a bit better than what you are to compete, personally I think you should have waited for that style before asking for a review.
The forum works and is working, in fact it’s working very well, you have very good traffic, and people are posting in varying amounts, some are well over 5k, which is excellent, you just need to generate a little more interest in other not so well used parts of the board to keep the membership happy.
Fix the banner and use the notices add on, that will help greatly, some custom forum icons as well would help to give you the unique look.
Just keep doing what you are doing, because to a greater degree it is working.
After reading your review, please click here to rate your review.
