Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
The first feeling I get from your forum is emptiness, the whole style is very clean and to the point. In some ways I like this, there is nothing that disturbs me when I view your forum, but it also feels like something is missing. A background of some sort or a border would help bring the forum together a little more. Right now the white background lets the eye wander too much making it hard to concentrate on the actual forum.
At the top you have 2 information bars with news updates. The border on these is a bit too thick considering the colour it is. Maybe a 1px or 2px border would be better. The actual header is clear and informs me of the forums name, yet as I am not a Leeds fan myself, more of an ITFC loonie, I have to continue reading before I work out what team this forum is actually about. One way of solving this is, as I assume the yellow shape is Leeds logo, to add the whole of Leeds badge instead, if it is different. As I said, I don't know much about Leeds
😛
Other than that, I really like the appearance of your forum as it is so clean and easy to view. You have custom topic buttons and a well thought through design. One thing you could do for the favicon is remove the white around the badge, it would make it look a little more professional. Well done!
(Score: 18/20)
Site Layout
I struggle to find something to fault here. Either you have been running forums for a long time, or you have had some good advice from someone. The amount of boards you have is perfect and the way they are split up is great. 2 boards in the first section which are about the forum itself, then 3 boards discussing footie and the team. Then a section with boards discussing things still footie related but a little more off-topic, very well done!
(Scored 20/20)
Statistics and Activity
Date Forum Opened: February 7th 2011
Our members have made a total of 3,139 posts in 395 threads.
We currently have 226 members registered.
Your forum has been open around 8 months, which gives an average of around 400 posts per month, which is actually pretty good for a forum of your size. What does disappoint me is that you have an average of 13 posts per member, this really isn't good. You need to put a lot more work into getting your members to stay active. You need to ask yourself, what does a new member do when they join your forum? Why don't they return to your forum? Put some work into drawing up a sketch of the kind of people that may visit your forum. Ask yourself why they come to your forum, what they want to do there and what sort of things would they like to see more of? Putting yourself into your members view of your site will definitely help you understand them and what they want of your forum. Maybe get some friends to visit your forum and ask them the same questions.
(Scored 15/20)
Staff Moderation
Your staff seem to be doing a good job of moderating your forum, as far as I can see there is 1 admin and 1 moderator. This is a good amount for your forum and they seem to be boosting discussion in the right direction. What is nice to see is that it isn't only your staff creating new topics, which shows me that you are running a balanced community where all members are involved in discussions, not just reading. One thing you could get your staff to work in is staff to member interaction. This is a good way of getting your members to want to come back and keep posting, if they feel the staff are like their friends and they always have something new to discuss with them. Let your staff chat and be a bit more of the community, this will really help!
(Scored 17/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
Appearance wise I can't fault your professionalism, grammar wise I can. The first board is a prime example of this. The title is Site Stuff, What sort of feeling does that give you? Better names could be Site Matters, or Information and Suggestions. The same goes for many of your board names and descriptions. This is the thing that really disappoints me about your forum, so much work has gone into the style and the community building and then you get let down by something like this. The descriptions look like a real rush job, this may be one of the reasons members choose not to return, they don't feel there is professionalism. Re-write the board descriptions, get them proof read and put time and effort into it, don't let a small thing like this drag your whole forum down!
(Scored 10/20)
Total Score - 80/100
Final Remarks
You have a great base here, put some more effort into the things you are lacking in and you may get into forum promotion's hall of fame!
Strong Points
Style, Staff
Things to Improve
Posts per member, Professionalism (especially board descriptions)
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