Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
The general appearance of your forum is really good. It's easy on the eye and all the colours work well together. While it all looks good together, the theme is somewhat bland. I think incorporating the orange a little bit more throughout the whole style would really make the style pop out more - Maybe a light orange colour for the Category Headers.
The Navigation bar is also lacking some spark, in terms of colour. The Social Network links look boring and aren’t easily noticed. I suggest giving them a bright orange colour, instead of the grey/black or their original colours. While the banner is one of the better ones that I’ve seen, I think it can definitely still use some work. I suggest capitalising the T, P and F and removing the ‘.com’, the centring the text more.
(Score: 16/20)
Site Layout
The General Layout of your forum is one of the better ones that I’ve seen. You’ve got all the important boards (Announcements, Suggestions/Feedback and Introductions) at the top, then your genre specific boards and finally the General Forum. The layout in each category is good, and you make good user of Sub Boards.
One small suggestion I do have is switching around the placement of the Questions, Suggestions and Feedback and Introductions around. I think a Feedback board should be seen as high up the board index as possible.
(Scored 19/20)
Statistics and Activity
Your stats are: Threads 1 281, 6 932 Posts and 302 Members. These are great figures for any forum to have regardless of its age. The main admin account was registered on the 8th January 2011. (This was the earliest record I could find.) Assuming you launched the forum soon after, and after crunching the numbers, you average around 70 or so posts per day. While this isn’t the best number it’s a good number for a forum to get. Furthermore you get around 12 Threads per day and 3 members per day – These are both good numbers compared to your forum.
The Stats also say 302 Active Members, and while I don’t know how this is calculated on vBulletin it’s definitely a good sign. You have 1 Admin, a Moderator and 2 other staff. For a forum of this size it’s a good amount. A lot of members have also logged on in the past 72 hours, 71 to be precise, which is a fantastic number – Almost a third of your members. Each board also have a good amount of threads and posts which is really good to see.
(Scored 17/20)
Staff Moderation
As I stated above, you’ve got 4 Staff which 2 being Moderation Staff. While browsing through your forum I found that the upkeep of the forum is to a high standard. You Moderator seems to be dedicated and is always happy to help out. Both of which are good qualities to see in any staff, on any forums. The other two staff are also active, and seem to do their jobs to a high standard. (From what I’ve gathered by reading blogs.)
(Scored 18/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
Like I mentioned above, the upkeep of the forum is too a high standard, and this helps keep the professionalism of your forum up too. Overall, the general professionalism of the forum is very good. Your staff are all professional in their respective roles, and the forum has a ‘formal’ feel to it.
As for Spelling and Grammar I noticed the odd error in important posts/announcements which is to be expected.
- Change ‘Watch this space for news of upcoming features, plans & competitions here at The Product Forum’ to ‘Watch this space for news of upcoming features, plans & competitions here at The Product Forum
.’
- Change ‘Discuss and review the latest products. Gossip about Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and RIM, Samsung Galaxy, Palm, Nokia, Motorola & more.’ to ‘Discuss and review the latest products. Gossip about Android, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry
, RIM, Samsung Galaxy, Palm, Nokia, Motorola & more.’
I suggest having a good spell check of your forum to catch any of those small errors and mistakes that have slipped under the radar!
(Scored 17/20)
Total Score -87 /100
Final Remarks
You’ve had a great first few months of your forum. If you can continue you’ll have a even better TPF in no time!
Strong Points
The overall professionalism and upkeep of the forum. The Theme will also be up there with a few small tweeks.
Things to Improve
Make a few small tweeks to the theme to really make it pop out. The Spelling and Grammar Mistakes will also make your forum look better when there gone and try to bring the activity up to!
After reading your review, please click here to rate our service.
The Team Leader will deduct the cash from your account shortly.
