Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
Your forum really has the wow factor, when I first visited I said, this is a forum I could join and enjoy. But gaming forums aren't really to my taste. You have a very stylish logo which I can easily see you using to represent your forum in many different places, with or without the text that is underneath it. The whole layout of the design is very clear and shiny, the topic buttons are nice and clean, but they don't feel overly gaming related. The speech bubbles next to the board titles look a little odd, but they are a nice touch and I understand why you have placed them there. The problem I can see with having them there is a member double posting a topic as they don't read the board before posting if they do choose to click there.
Even the footer is very sleek and well designed, at first I thought you were using paid software, it is amazing to see what you have accomplished with MyBB. The only thing I don't like about the design is the sidebar with adverts, but you rightly offer the option of removing this, which is great. What I would like to see as a finishing touch for your forum is a favicon, a small extra that makes a big difference.
(Score: 20/20)
Site Layout
You have 4 sections, named as different levels. This does feel a little odd to me, I don't see why these level numbers are needed. Anyway, the first section, Intro, contains 3 boards. The announcements and introductions are fine, but I don't see the reason for the Rules needing to be their own board. Put them instead as a sticky in the announcements board or even as a global announcement. It just looks odd to have a board sitting at the top with only one topic like that, and in some ways it feels a bit intimidating.
The second section, Play and Share, I am unable to see as a guest, but as there are only two boards here I am going to assume these are fine. They are gaming related though, so I don't see the reason for them being in their own section, move them instead down into the Pay and Discuss section.
The third section, Play and Discuss, contains 9 boards, all of which have a good amount of content. The last three boards don't have a huge amount of topics and if they don't continue to receive new posts then I suggest you merge them, but they are fine as they are now compared to the size of your forum.
The fourth section, Marketplace, needs a lot of work. You only need one board here, not four. I suggest you merge all the boards together and just have a board called Gaming Marketplace instead. The fifth section only contains one board, the off-topic board. I don't have much to suggest as changes, maybe to make things look neater call the fourth section other and have both boards in there instead. It is a difficult layout.
(Scored 15/20)
Statistics and Activity
Date Forum Opened: September 10, 2011
Our members have made a total of 4,486 posts in 607 threads.
We currently have 410 members registered.
Your forum has been open for nearly 4 months and has had an average of 1121 posts per month, which is great for a forum as young as this. You also have an average of 10 posts per member, which is not very good. This starts to make me think you have been doing a lot of post exchanges or you have a database merged into your forum. Something about these statistics doesn't add up for me. If you can keep the 1000 posts per month going then your forum is going to do just fine, but you really need to work on your posts per member. I would expect around 20 posts a month from your members. Talk to your staff, there is something that needs to change on your site so that your members keep coming back.
(Scored 12/20)
Staff Moderation
You have 1 admin, 1 super moderator and 4 moderators. This, in my opinion is far too much for the size of your forum. What I would suggest for a forum of this size is 1 admin and 1 moderator, you really don't need more than this. You should keep one of the two moderators that has over 200 posts as they seem to be the ones contributing most to the community. The super moderator and the other 2 moderators don't have that many posts and don't seem to be doing anything that really helps the community, for this reason I don't see why they should be staff. Your staff do seem to be interacting with your members, which is a good thing. But they need to work on building a closer relationship so that the members continue to return to the site.
(Scored 9/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
Your forum looks very professional and you as an admin are respectful towards your members and handle matters in a mature way. The grammar is lacking in places, especially on the board descriptions ex. Read Here if you want to prevent being BANNED! Read this if you wish to avoid being banned would work much better here. Most of your board descriptions are poorly written, short and feel quite demanding. Some boards don't have any descriptions at all.I suggest you re-write them and make them more detailed and interesting.
(Scored 10/20)
Total Score - 66/100
Final Remarks
You have a really nice start to a forum here. I really like the forum style and the first impression I got from your forum was that it was a really good forum with loads of content and potential. But as I continued to view and review your site I was disappointed. The first looks of your forum are very deceiving. The activity is lacking and there are many things that make me just want to close the page. I feel that in some ways you need to return to the drawing board, but don't be downhearted. You have a great forum in the making here, don't give up! Good Luck.
Strong Points
Style
Things to Improve
Grammar, Board descriptions, Layout, Activity
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