Political Debate Forums
Full Review by Bazinga!
Scoring:
First Impressions – (11 out of 20)
My first impression open viewing the forum was mediocre. I wasn't overly thrilled when I first viewed your forum but I wasn't so horrified that I ran away screaming. What leads me to feel this way will be listed in the other areas of this review so I will just let you read on instead of repeating it.
You must be able to 'wow' guests enough when they first view your forum. An individual will probably only spend about 60-90 seconds or so viewing a forum for the first time. So you don't have much time to impress upon a person as to why they should join. If you can impress them enough, you can get them to join or at least spend a little longer looking your forum over before moving on.
Design Quality – (12 out of 20)
Well, there are a few things I want to point out when it comes to the graphics and design aspect of your forum. The snapshot of a city that is directly underneath the title of your forum....I'm not so sure what that has to do with a forum that is political in nature. What I mean is, I think if you are going to have pictures on your forum then they should have something to do with the niche` of your forum.....like all of the different icons that you have next to each category. I think those look good and I think it would be appropriate if those icons and the photo were to match in some way. Also, I feel like I'm being sucked in to the black background of your forum. I think the background should help bring out your forum rather than distract from it.
Site Statistics – (19 out of 20)
At the time of this review, you have 579 members, 5, 727 topics, and 86,349 replies. I would say that is pretty good statistics for a forum that has only been open since April of this year. The importance now is to keep that growth going. If you give up on your forum or start loosing interest in it, then the member base will also start loosing interest in it. The trick from here on out is to not loose interest in your forum and you should do well.
Staff Professionalism – (19 out of 20)
The only staff members I could find were two administrators, one of them being yourself. While it is good to have a second administrator on your forum (or co-administrator, depending on the situation), you may want to consider some more staff as your forum continues to grow in size. You don't want to hire so many staff members that they are tripping over themselves working on the forum, however, a couple of global moderators or a moderator for each section of the forum wouldn't hurt. The reason I bring this up is this, you want to see the forum grow but you want it to grow in a good way. If the forum grows to the point that you and your fellow administrator can't moderate the entire forum between the two of you, then it is time to hire some more staff. The last thing you would want, or need, if for a discussion to go flying off topic due to a member or group flaming another member or group. Having enough staff on the forum would help catch things like that and keep it from getting out of control. If guests were to view your forum and find something like that getting out of hand then they may be more likely to not join your forum so it would be a good idea to nip things like that in the butt as quickly as possible.
Other than that, I don't really have anything to say about the staff or their professionalism. You guys seem to be doing a good job so far but need to keep the above idea in mind for the future.
Originality – (12 out of 20)
Even though you have a rather large amount of posting going on, I don't feel your site has a lot of originality to it. There are other political / debate forums out there so your trick here is to set yourself apart from the crowd. Something you can do is have either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly debates. Take a certain political issue and let your members weigh in on the particular issue. It would be a great way to increase discussions on the forum as well as something a little different.
Site Structure – (15 out of 20)
The structure of the forum is pretty good and is pretty well organized. I would think it would be okay to combine the "Hot Discussions" area and "In Greater Depth" area together as I am having a bit of trouble trying to figure out why they are separated in the first place. I can see why you have the discussions in "The Lounge" in their own area because they are more off topic in nature and don't really belong with the political / debate section. Same thing applies to the "Community Ops" area of the forum. If it were me, I might consider combining "Hot Discussions and "In Greater Depth".
Grammar/Spelling & Content – (18 out of 20)
So far, I have not found any grammar or spelling errors on the part of the staff or on the forum. There were a few here and there on the part of various members but it wasn't to the point that I couldn't read it and that should be the main goal. While I don't expect everyone to have perfect grammar and spelling, I do expect it to be readable. It would make things extremely difficult, if not impossible, if your members could not read each others topics/replies. Keeping up with that could become a monumental task as the forum grows but as I mentioned earlier, hiring a couple of additional staff could help with this matter.
As far as the content goes, there are many topics that can be discussed on your forum. It depends on what each individual member likes or prefers to discuss. For instance, a particular member likes discussing the 2nd Amendment but may not enjoy discussing the economy....then so be it. There is plenty to talk about on your forum, that is the point I am trying to make here. The only trick it to make sure you have different topics and that your topics stand out from other political forums. I know that kind of goes back to "Originality" but it something that, I think, can only improve your forum.
Total Score - (106 out of 140)
Final Remarks:
Overall, I think you have a good site but there are some things that can be improved upon to make it even better. I wish you the best of luck in the future with your forum and I believe you can do great as long as you don't give up or loose interest.
Strengths:
- - Statistics & activity is good for forum that is only 8 months old.
- Good staff professionalism.
Weaknesses:
- - Wasn't impressed the "look" and the "structure" of the forum.
- Originality can be improved.
