Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
When viewing the forums for the first time I instantly grew a liking to them. The
logo is quite interesting, and rather amazing. The navigation isn't quite there yet though I would really look into updating and re-designing the navigation if you
can. Only because it just doesn't flow good with the current style you are running. The images within the
forum sections are very helpful such as the
scroll for the news section and so forth. This made it easy for me to understand a bit more where to post or what that
section was currently about.
The scrolling text got in the way of the design as it moved way to fast and felt like it jumped forward. I suggest making it a bit more slower or removing it altogether and maybe adding a nice little announcement regarding the moving text.
(Scored 10/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
The layout itself is quite impressive very a nice and unique feel to it. However the first bit I noticed was the navigation like stated above it just doesn't
flow with the rest of the design. This isn't a bad thing but it could be designed or changed to fit a bit more.
I also noticed that under your
"Game Station" you have the
Sony Playstation logo and you are listing all of the consoles this could be presented as bias towards newly guests. I defiantly think you should just find a controller that doesn't represent any of the consoles. However I really did find these images very helpful throughout the rest of the sections.
The affiliates area is really not needed in that placement. It makes your site seem less professional. Instead of having them within a "forum" I think you should place them at the bottom of the website and maybe either keep them rotating and or maybe they rotate every refresh and or just placed on the bottom showing them all at the same time. Either way I really suggest taking them out of the forum section like I said just makes your forum one extra area that it doesn't need.
You also have a lot of unneeded sections on your
forum home index.
For example you could put
Entertainment within General Chat and put everything under "Entertainment" as a child forum. Thus making the forum index less forums than it needs. If you where to do this you could really make your forum a bit more appealing and less overwhelming with tons of sections.
(Scored 5/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Your activity doesn't seem to welcoming at the moment.I mean don't get me wrong you had at least five people on while I was doing this review which isn't bad but defiantly could go in for more as any forum can. It does seem though that your statistics seem that they are
not suffering from the lack of users online. Also not knowing really who is who under the staff vs members since everything was hard to understand I do think that if I'm right more staff are visiting your website more than members.
(Scored 5/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
It seems to my knowledge and understanding that it is very
hard to figure out members from staff as you truly have way to many different ranks and none of them say "members" or anything around that. But as I can understand it seems as more moderators and admins I guess you would call it are visiting your website. It also seems as your staff are making the rules shown of what its expected from your members. Very nice job all you need to do for this section is tiny up the amount of different
usergroups there are.
(Scored 13/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
Some minor details that I found was you said X-box which isn't correct it's either XBOX and or Xbox either one can work. This just makes it look a bit unprofessional by doing this. Other than that It seems as you did a very nice job making sure everything is spelled correctly and well worded so anybody could understand the section and or feature on your forums.
I also noticed that when staff post that sometimes they use the easy way out on their posting. Meaning they will abbreviate words to make them shorting now I'm not totally against this however it's okay here and there to do it but when it becomes a habit that's when your site turns to look a bit unprofessional and shows some people that people may or may not take your forum serious.
(Scored 10/20)
Total Score - 43 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: Your site has a bright future in my opinion if you just touch up on the suggestions and take my ideas into consideration you may see yourself owning the next generation used forum!
What was most liked about the website/forums:
The logo and the overall design itself.
What was disliked most about the website/forums:
The navigation was a bit off from the design.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website?
Just by making your site a bit more organized both forum sections and affiliates showing area.
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