The Freebie Exchange
Full Review by AndroidOS
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (10 out of 20)
I'm sorry I have to say this, but when I first looked at the site I thought it looked very outdated. The forum opened in 2008, and honestly I believe that you could have kept the same theme for those 5 years. I really think you should consider getting a custom or even just a premium theme. As I am sure you are aware, the looks of the site really affect whether or not potential members join, as it is the very first thing many take into account when viewing the site for the first time. The use of the bold reds however draw your eyes into the most important bits, and this is a colour scheme I would personally keep, were you to change the theme.
I also am not a fan of the frontpage you have. I see why you see it as useful, however when joining a forum the first thing I really want to see is the index page, as it gives me an idea of what type of topics I can post here, and what is discussed. Having a frontpage makes me feel as though you don't want me to see that, and that really puts me off wanting to join. What is nice however is that you have a log in/register box near the top of every page. This keeps on persuading me to join as I browse through your site.
Site Layout – (10 out of 20)
The first big problem I have here is the shoutbox at the top of the index page. It is not something I, as a guest, find useful, especially seeing as it only really seems to be used to promote new topics and replies. I think this is something you should consider removing, as to me it does not seem to be used a lot. If you were not to remove it completely I would at least suggest removing it from guest view. Secondly, it is a very long scroll for me to get to the bottom of the index page. Now, looking through the forums and sub-forums there are not many I think you could remove, but still take a look at the post count for each forum and see if there are any you feel you could remove, as at the minute it all seems overwhelming, and I don't really know where to start.
This long index page also means there is a lot of white space to the right, where the sidebar should be. I think you should possibly try and put some things down there, maybe move the top 10 stats box you have at the bottom to the side?
Statistics and Activity – (14 out of 20)
242,928 posts for a 5 year old forum isn't too bad. Also, the fact that you only have around 18,000 topics tells me that there must be very few topics without replies. You also have around 15,000 members. This I also find good as it means a majority of the users have probably posted at least a few times, and that the ones who have stayed active must have quite a few posts by now. Something that does strike me however is that the activity seems to be going down hill. This is something you should try and fix. Now, when thinking about this I would be very careful if you decide to do a posting contest. These usually result in users making extremely short posts to boost their post count, and then the activity dies again once the contest is over.
Content – (11 out of 20)
Due to the nature of your forum this is rather hard for me to rate, as honestly I wouldn't expect lots and lots of quality discussion going on, rather more topics about people exchanging things. However there does seem to be a lot of this going on. One of the reasons I gave you a low score on this section is because, as I mentioned previously, as of late the forums activity seems to have went downhill and there is no longer many new topics about this. I also feel you could have a section where members can discuss all sorts of different exchanges and freebies etc. This might help promote users to have quality discussions, bringing another purpose and audience to the forums.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (11 out of 20)
The first thing I want to comment about here is the professionalism of the official topics (rules, guidelines, etc). The use of the bright and bold colours, whilst eye-catching, make the site seem unprofessional. I would suggest using a smaller font and a smaller variety of colours - the default black and red for the important bits seems to me as though it would be more than enough. However, I struggled to find any spelling mistakes in any of the official posts. The only thing regarding this I would ask you to go through and check is the correct spelling of homophones; I've noticed you've been using the wrong version of spelling, and that is one thing that annoys me.
Total Score - (56 out of 100)
Final Remarks:
You have a basis for a good site. I would first of all work on a custom theme to draw in potential members, and then work on boosting the activity of the site again. Do this and I believe you will have a successful site, as long as it becomes self-sustainable.
Strengths:
- - Good idea for a forum
- You've got the backbone of a good site, the content is already there
Weaknesses:
- - The theme looks outdated
- Activity seems to be dwindling
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