Full Forum Review

[AquaTeen]

Good

 

[Zezima]

Accepted!

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[Zezima]

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Your Forum Review​

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First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)What can I say? Your site does what it was meant to do, invoke a feeling of post-zombie apocalyptic catastrophe. I love your banner, the chainsaw attachment on the right-hand gun is a nice touch, and really gets that sense of urgency for survival. However, I did notice in the same image a non-transparent background in and around the trigger. A minor blight, but every detail counts to earn a good first impression to guests. The center piece of the banner, a female zombie, is actually a balanced choice. You want people to join your site, and understand what it's about at first glance, if anything, but you also don't want to scare them off with images that are too graphic to look at. So you took both. It's a zombie, but it's not bad to look at. Informatively fearsome, yet somewhat welcoming. The index icon, a flaming, lumbering zombie, is actually a quite fun way to get a guest's attention. One more note on the banner, the tagline "Survive the apocalypse" is a unique addition. I say this because it gives you the sense that it's not just a forum, a place of discussion of a particular subject, and yet, it's not just a community, a collection of individuals coinhabiting a similar space in a friendly atmosphere. The line gives your site a way to express that it's an experience in of itself. That you're not merely posting, or chatting, you're surviving. I appreciate that creativity.

Moving away from the index, things get a bit more complicated. The first thing I must point out is the new topic button. It stands out way too much. Everything on your site is a monochromatic scheme of gray, and then suddenly, a shiny blue/silver/orange button glares at you, it looks so out of place. I'd suggest a gray button, with maybe a question mark, or a light bulb next to a zombie head, adding to the theme, because from a theme perspective, that looks overlooked. Then we see the topic icons. Everything is jumbled up here, it seems so uncoordinated, you have 6 different icons that look like they were each made by a different person, which generally isn't a good thing, because then the graphics will look a bit schizophrenic, like you couldn't decide on what to do. For the new posts/no new posts, we get a pretty detailed zombie head with dot hands, then we see the popular icon is the same as your forum index icon, which is a sprite-like animation, then the locked icon looks like DeviantArt made it, only the most crucial physiognomies, and dot hands, then we have announcements, which, looks like a caricaturisation (illustration exaggerating features) of a particularly fierce zombie, then we have sticky, which, I can't really describe because I'm not sure what's supposed to be sticking (I see what was done there) out of his eye, and lastly, moved topic, which may be the most appropriate of them all, is a zombie trying, and failing to replace his constantly lost eyeball. So, what was my point in bringing all of this up? That, much like my overly long sentence, nothing seems to make much sense. I don't mean that in an offensive way, I'm saying that the icons don't seem to convey that much individual, or even group meaning. I'd suggest either making your own set, asking someone to make some for you, or even request a set from here at the exchange. This way, you can get further peer feedback, and can get a more consistent look out of it.

Lastly, the reply button, being of the same scheme as the topic one, as said, looks out of place. The PM, website, and profile buttons are fair, because they are a duller hue of blue, and use gray text, which is something I would suggest using for your reply and topic buttons. Other than my over-analyzing, that's the kind of site I would like mine to be, (because gray is my favorite color) and it's overall a well done design.



(Scored 18/20)

Site Layout - (Out of 20)
The layout is just plain creative. You go on your site, a zombie site, and what do you see? First, that survive the apocalypse banner, and then you shift your eyes slightly down, and right there, zombie survival tips and blog. You're not only telling them to do something, you're telling them how to do it. A forum that can be flexible in its purpose this way deserves more credit than most people would be willing to give. Then we have the forum itself, which is just a perfect balance for a zombie site. You have general discussion of zombies, getting prepared, surviving and post-apocalyptic scenarios, fiction/RPG, introductions, general horror, general discussion, news, and suggestions. You got me. I can not seriously think of anything to change with this layout, nothing to move, nothing to add, nothing to remove, you've accomplished what so many forums just simply fail to do: find what works, and stick with it while keeping it simple. Sure, you don't have a lot of forums, and your index is short, but that's the beauty of it, it does its job, and it does it exceedingly well.
(Scored 20/20)

Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Your activity is impressive. At the time of this writing, it has taken your forum 5 weeks to get 107 users to post roughly 38 times each, for a total of 3,800+ posts. That's 774 posts a week. Your topics and forums are far from inactive. I had to actually search for topics that had zero replies to them, and virtually all of them had substantial double-digit views, which does have a significance, it means that there's an interest in what's being discussed at your site. The only forums that don't have much activity are the ones that really shouldn't, news and feedback. I say this because the fewer updates you have, the better, more time to have more ideas, improve on them, and better use of brainstorming and collaboration, which, is evident throughout the site. I can understand feedback not having much activity, because a site this well made doesn't have much to improve on, frankly.
(Scored 19/20)

Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
Seeing as you have an appropriate amount of staff at your site, that is, 3, there won't be much to go on about. 3 staff members to 107 members gives each staff member 36 users to moderate, which, given time should grow to a more substantial number, because out of the 36, as far as I can gather, few or none of them will misbehave that much, so that gives your staffers time to relax and join in with everyone else in the community. As for staff professionalism, Whaturmuva and Class 3 do their job decently well. KurtJP however, doesn't seem to be all that committed to the idea of behavior and rule regulations, considering his own consistently broken grammar posts, and rather unrelated posts to the original topic, I'd suggest talking with him about it, or look for a replacement, or alternatively alternatively, remove him and stay as 2 staffers, which would give you each 54 members to moderate, a bit more to keep you busy, but not enough to worry about for a while. In the general sense it doesn't, or rather, shouldn't matter much now, considering your forum's age, so it's on a good start.
(Scored 17/20)

Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
As noted above, the professionalism notes really lie with KurtJP and his own actions. As for the regular members and users of the site, they actually show some effort in keeping the English language and all of its semantics intact, and your influence in replying to every topic actually does them quite a service, leading by example if you will. I don't see a problem with the site's overall feel of professionalism and grammar, I think it's holding its own at a steady pace, no sudden breaks in conversation, no random flame wars, instead, more of a calm unidirectional flow of topic, which is how forums are usually intended to go.
(Scored 18/20)

Total Score - (92 Out of 100)​

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Final Remarks:

What was most liked about the website/forums: Its creative features and unique atmosphere.

What was disliked most about the website/forums: Somewhat unattended attention to graphic detail, and one mentioned staffer.

How could I get you (the reviewer) to join my website? I would join if there were more activity, and may very well join anyway.


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