Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
I’m honestly not quite sure what theme your forum is supposed to show off. I was shown a dark theme as a guest, but once I logged in, it set to a theme called “Essensia Winter.” There was additionally one called “The Anime Forums” that was green, but didn’t have the level of customization the others had. Don’t get me wrong; it’s good to have multiple skins for users to select from. However, it should be consistent. Your guest skin, and the default member skin, should be the same. Also, if you’re going to have one with the name of your forum, why isn’t it default? I’ll just review off the one I was given when logged in. (the winter one)
As far as your skin, it’s alright. The only real customization you’ve done to it is the logo. However, it’s easy to read, and is fluid. That’s good for people like me with larger monitors. The moving affiliate box isn’t as annoying as most are, which is a plus. I think if you made the skin more anime-like, and more related to your forum, it would be very good. I also appreciated the fact you have a favicon. That way, whoever chooses to add your site as a favorite will have a nice icon to look at instead of a blank page at the top of their browser.
(Scored 14/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Your site keeps nagging me to set an AIO password (which it didn’t tell me what it was until I clicked it), which got annoying. That’s OK though, because most members would probably want to set it. As far as your forum’s layout of actual boards, well, let’s talk about that. Your categorization is fine. However, you have way too many forums. Nobody likes trying to dig through subforums. The rule of thumb is only create subforums when a topic gets so out of hand with popularity that it absolutely warrants one. Take this, for example.
http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_Anime_Foru ... m/1443645/ Some of those don’t even have a single topic in them. Others only have a couple. Those would be easier to see if they were all one board, and people could just create a topic when they see fit. If a certain anime gets a lot of threads created about it, then consider a subforum. I would definitely reconsider your subforum layout. Again, your categorization is fine, however. Also, if I may suggest one more thing, maybe you could make more original board descriptions. Everything is “Discuss anything [x] here.” That’s a bit bland.
(Scored 10/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Thank you very much for having such a good statistic center. It works really well. Your forum has around 9,000 posts and 100 members. 9,000 posts is great for a forum your age. However, your top posters list reveals that all but 1 of your top posters is, or has been, staff on your forum. You want more regular member activity than staff activity. Why? The regular members are who your forum should cater to (that’s why you have staff), and because a forum with all the posts made by staff intimidates new members. One good sign, though, was that 3 out of your 6 newest members did indeed post at least 7 posts. That may be a sign they’ll be active.
One particular problem in your activity is that OVER HALF is based in the off-topic forum. If you’re an anime forum, you should have most activity in the anime sections. Perhaps when you promote, promote the anime sections specifically, and when doing post exchanges, only do them for anime sections. Trust me, you don’t want your forum to turn 100% to your lounge board.
(Scored 11/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
You really could use a master key of staff colors. It’s like a rainbow. I think you could merge all the specific mods into a “Single Category” mod group. I think you could also mix the Founder and Admin groups together. That would make things a lot simpler. Your staff seems to be active, which is good. However, I wouldn’t hire anymore staff. You have a lot for a forum that’s just 99 members.
(Scored 15/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I took a look at an announcement. It was nearly unreadable.
http://s1.zetaboards.com/The_Anime_Foru ... 3825265/1/ This is certainly not professional. It’s OK to mess around like that in the other boards, but you probably shouldn’t do that in an official one. Interestingly enough, your board descriptions were surprisingly good. The only one I could find with an error was this one. “Play anime related game here.” should be, “Play anime related games here.” I think the main suggestion for you would be to make sure your professionalism is in check, but other than that, good job.
(Scored 17/20)
Total Score - 68 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: I think your forum could use some major simplification.
What was most liked about the website/forums: Spelling and Grammar was good.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: Layout
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Fix some of the issues I mentioned above.
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