Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
Your forum looks decent at a glance, but I would never be able to tell that it's a hockey site just by glancing at it quickly. You might want to redesign your banner at the top to both make it more unique and make it clear that the user is on a hockey site. Other than that, your forum does look okay, but it might be nice to add some unique features to your theme. I feel like I see this exact same color scheme, those exact gradients, and the same physical layout everywhere. I also think that you should move your "Overview" to the bottom. I don't like to see anything large at the top of the forum between the banner and the forums.
Your forum looks active at a glance based on your statistics, but you've got a couple of empty forums. Empty forums can really make a forum look inactive. You should definitely post topics in these forums (although one is an affiliate forum) to get discussion started. If it's just a rule topic or informational post, then so be it. Anything is better than an empty forum. I doubt that your statistics would turn away any potential members, though.
Overall, my first impression of your forum wasn't terrible, but it certainly could have been better.
(Scored 12/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Your layout is fairly concise, but it's organized in an odd way in my opinion. I'm not a fan of categories that only have one forum; I think that you should move the "IIHF Tournaments," "Olympic Hockey," and "NHL Hockey" forums to your "Hockey" category and eliminate the excessive categories. This will make your layout appear more organized, more concise,
and more focused on hockey. I think that your top category also needs to be reorganized a bit. I would place your announcement forum at the top. Announcements should always be seen first and foremost by your users. I think that making the aforementioned changes will greatly improve your forum's layout.
(Scored 14/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
According to my calculations, your forum is currently receiving just under fifty posts per day, and you have fifty posts for each of your twenty-nine members. These statistics aren't bad, but you could still use some improvement. You should make sure that you are advertising your forum on other sports forums. Post around on other sports forums, be respectful, and give helpful responses while wearing your site's link in your signature. This may help your site become noticed. You may also find some of the services on Forum Promotion and other promotion forums to be useful. You can also use promotion forums to find tips on how to promote. Just make sure that you're doing a little bit to promote your site every day.
(Scored 12/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
It appears that you currently have two administrators and two moderators. That seems like a good amount of staff members for the beginning. Be prepared to staff up if necessary, though. Your staff members seem to be active for the most part. I think that your staff members need to do a better job of creating content for the forum; there need to be more topics for the users. Your staff members appear to do a good job of welcoming users to the forum. Overall, your staff members are doing a decent job of managing the forum, but they could be doing a better job.
(Scored 16/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
Some of your forums lack descriptions! Forums without descriptions make you look lazy. You should definitely have a description for every forum. The descriptions that are there are quite bland. Most of them are very short. Descriptions are there to describe what should be posted in a forum, and they are also there to impress prospective members. You want to make your forums seem interesting. I would recommend writing new descriptions for your forums.
(Scored 12/20)
Total Score - 66 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: I do see some potential, but you've still got some work to do. You're definitely not in the home stretch yet.
Strong points: Your staff members are good at making your community seem welcoming.
Improvements to make: You need to improve your layout, descriptions, content, activity, and uniqueness.
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