Name of Site: Forum Promotion Site Genre: Webmaster and Promotion Site URL:http://forumpromotion.net/ Type of Review (Full/Quick/Questionnaire): Full Opening Date: Sometime in 2007 Additional Notes: No bias please, be honest
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For this review, we are going to do things a little different. We will have two Review Team members help with this review, and because of this, we will color code their comments. Another change is how we score each section and furthermore, the total score. We will average the score given by each team member for each section and then for the overall score. So, if you see half's, that's why.
Bazinga! - RTM Lucky! - RTL
Without further ado, here is our joint review of ForumPromotion!
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (15.5 out of 20)
I've seen quite a few forums that let you promote or advertise your site and/or offer services for your site but I'm pretty sure Forum Promotion is the biggest I've seen as far as the amount of members and threads/posts you have. Kudos to having such a big forum. However, I just have one thing to criticize here on your appearance. The banner located just under your navigation bar....I don't see any reason why it is bigger than the forum banner. And I don't like the advertisement that is in the forum banner. It is one thing to have site advertisements on your forum, I understand that your forum is a site where people can advertise their own sites on but I don't really think it should be in your forum banner. Having it underneath your navigation bar is okay but it shouldn't be bigger than your forum banner. It just seems like the forum banner/header is being swallowed up by all the things surrounding it, plus, it seems too distracting and pulls you away from the main objective of the forum.
Ahh yes, good ol' ForumPromotion. I have been a member for three years, and I have seen many changes, which is good. One of the biggest change thus far is the introduction of the blog, which brought a face lift to the homepage. It used to be an awkward space and it felt like it wasn't even supposed to be there and it looked like it was thrown in there to do something. However, this new one brings use, which is nice. Because of the new blog, we now have a homepage that shows off the content in that blog, which is fantastic because it offers guests a glimpse of what we offer, cool! With the new change, we also bring over some old parts of the portal such as the sponsors, SOTM/FTOM and the social aspect of the sharing. I really like this new homepage because it actually serves a purpose and it is more streamline, which is a huge thing for me.
Other than the homepage, nothing really hasn't changed that much, kind of a double edged sword. The biggest thing that I found was the ads, which by themselves aren't bad. However, they are animated and they draw away from the main content of the forum and that is not a good thing. I have always hated animated ads because of this reason and I feel they are an eye sore, again, not a good thing. Continuing down, we see a spotlights forum, which I love! I like it because I knew what it looked like before and this new change makes a lot more enticing to members to be there because of how it's laid out with the image and text preview, it serves a lot more purpose. Looking further, we have what I would expect from a forum of this size, plenty of forums, nice descriptions for them,a statistics spot, and a footer. Overall, I am liking everything so far. Let's carry on shall we!
Site Layout – (17 out of 20)
Forum Promotion has always been easy for me to navigate. The entire forum is organized very well which makes things a lot easier to find. Nothing is more annoying to me than to not be able to find what I'm looking for or being able to get around the forum easily, and that is a sure way to keep me from joining and never coming back again.
My only thing about the layout of the forum is that it hasn't changed at all since I became a member here. I know Nerdie is working on a new "theme" for Forum Promotion and that is good. I would recommend a new "theme" if there already wasn't one being worked on at the moment. It is good to mix things up a little from time to time without messing up the ease of navigating a forum. I wish you the best of luck with the new "theme" and hope it serves FP well.
Starting with the new homepage, that's where the layout kind of starts out right. We get a little message that let's us know the reason for ForumPromotion and offers something that entices me to join, which I don't see a lot. The blog posts are laid out in a way that shows the most recent posts and then how everything is categorized in the right side makes looking around very pleasurable. While we're talking about the sidebar, I love it! I love it for one reason, it's organized! I really do like how everything is divided and is laid out to make sense. For me, the layout of the forums has always been good to me. The way that everything is placed inside categories, forums and the sub-forums just make sense to me and makes it very easy to get around the community in a way that just works. I like that the forums are in some kind of balance with categories having around three to four each, which just adds to the consistency.
Now, here are some things that I would have to point out that I don't like. The first one is the animated ads, get rid of them. For someone that uses AdBlock, this is why. Even the developers of AdBlock don't mind ads, however, the one thing they all hate are the ones that are animated. They take the eyes of the users away from the content, which is horrible. Really, we don't need them. Like I said, I normally use AdBlock on every site I use, so the amount of ads that are visible isn't a huge problem. One thing that I can say on this is the the main banner under the navigation bar is quite large in size, and takes up a lot of room and makes it so it's an eye sore. Reduce the size, maybe? The other thing that I recommend is adding the "FP Links" and the "Sponsor Links" back to the text that's under the navigation bar, it makes it so we know why those links are there. Right now, they are just a random block of text that serves no purpose. Finally, I hate the social bookmark images that appear above every thread. I don't mind the idea of social sharing, but the icons are God awful looking and don't match the UI at all! Maybe find other images that flow well with the theme?
Statistics and Activity – (17 out of 20)
You currently have 1,217,035 posts, 113,965 topics, 20984 members at the time of this review. In my mind, that is extremely good numbers. However, just because your forum shows good statistics now doesn't mean you should get complacent. That can sometimes be a problem with some forum owners/administrators. Don't let yourself grow complacent because if you don't show enough interest in your own site then how to you expect others to be excited about your site?
Something that I have always liked about ForumPromotion was the amount of activity that it has always had. Boasting 1.2 million posts is something to be proud of, which I can feel around the community. Now, I love stats, so let's list some!
Current Stats:
Posts per user: 58
Threads per user: 5
Posts for every thread: 10
Stats from 1 Year Ago
Posts per user: 63
Threads per user: 5
Posts for every thread: 10
Stats from 2 Years Ago
Posts per user: 74
Threads per user: 6
Posts for every thread: 10
So, here are a few things that I'd like to point out about the above numbers. First off, an average of 58 per member is okay, but I would like to see this number a little higher due to the age of ForumPromotion. Don't get me wrong, an average user having 58 posts is nice, but it should be a bit higher, maybe 70-80ish. Reason I say this is because we have a million posts, which offers plenty of room for growth. Another number I am shocked about is an average of five threads per member is really, really low. This number will never be close to the number of posts, but it should be a bit higher, maybe in the 15-20 area. To me, this number shows the users are replying to more posts and really not making new content to be replied to, which is really important. Another number to back this theory up is the ratio of posts per thread, which is ten. This should be a little lower mainly because you need a mixture of replies AND threads to keep a community in check. One thing that does scare me is this is a going trend of lower numbers. I went back another year to when ForumPromotion had less than a million posts and numbers were more where they should be. I don't know, I see a plateau happening, and without change, I see them getting worse.
I suggest opening a thread and seeing what the users would like to see and listen to those comments. Ask them what brings them back everyday or ask them what would make them more active everyday. Do a little more research, it's important to gauge where your community stands.
Content – (16 out of 20)
It is nice that you offer an off topic area or a "non-promotion" area where members can take time to have a normal conversation with other people outside of managing their website/forum/blog/etc. It nice that you allow your members a break and just be normal for a bit.
Aside from having the normal advertising section where members can promote their site and the services you offer to each individual such as packages and reviews, is the "managing online forums & websites" where each admin and/or owner can collaborate with each other and get new ideas. If often helps to have another set of eyeballs or another brain to help you spot an idea that can help your site grow.
I don't have much to say here mainly because Bazinga! did a nice job pretty much summing things up. One thing that I can say is that I am impressed with how everything is still going strong around the community. For the most part, I am quite pleased with how the community currently is.The community events and the general community interaction is quite awesome and shows how dedicated everyone is to this community, which is amazing! The users also have numerous categories for discussion and ways to exchange services between themselves, I mean look at the exchanges forum; it's massive!
One thing that I wished we had was more resources. I know ForumPromotion was tailored towards the promotion side of things, but maybe we need a change. I have always wanted to see something like a database of nothing but tutorials, guides and some coding. I have always wanted to come across a board that did this well and I have yet to find one.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (16.5 out of 20)
The spelling/grammar seems to be pretty good, other than the occasional mistake. I'm sure that not all members are native speakers of English. While they are learning the English language and getting use to it, there will be an occasional spelling or grammar mistake from time to time but it isn't enough to interfere with what is taking place on the site.
As far as professionalism, I think the staff performs very well and I'm glad to see that. Nothing is worse than having a poor staff who cause just as much problems as problematic members that show up from time to time. Also, I noticed the many staff members add posts throughout the forum in addition to their duties and normal tasks. It is great when the staff help out with posting!
This is the section that I feel is going to boast the best score. I have yet to find any issues in grammar or spelling, which is good. Even trying to find something wrong, I cannot. Forum descriptions text are an important part of the overall forum appearance than the style. These forum descriptions have been here for a long time and might be time for a little facelift. I hear that we are getting a new theme, why not give the descriptions a bit of a makeover too to fit the modern direction of ForumPromotion. Other than that, I cannot find any issues here. Nice!
Total Score - (82 out of 100)
Final Remarks: Overall, I am very impressed with ForumPromotion! I am amazed at how long it has lasted and the amount of dedication from every facet of this community is truly admiring. I loved reviewing the forum that I have been part of for so long and I cannot wait to see where the community goes! Best of luck and here's to another 6 years!
Strengths:
-The amount of activity you have is great but remember to not get complacent. -Professional staff. -Overall community dedication -Services are still rocking, even after 6 years! Keep it up!
Weaknesses:
-Some of the things around the site banner/header can be distracting and seem to overpower the site banner/header. -Change up the "theme" from time to time. -Statistics are forming a plateau. Ask the community what they would like to see! -Change up the forum descriptions
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