Full Review by phio_chan
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (12 out of 20)
The name "Gamingforce" is a reflective one; with one glance readers can already build certain expectation before they visit the link provided. During first visit, the community looks solid. Forum's theme is still within tolerable boundaries although the colors used are not my favorites. From the welcome box it looks like the forum has been around for 6 years, there are many sections provided for discussions, and the overall activity rate seems to be at a lovely level. The box says "GamingForce", though, and I prefer the letter "f" to be capitalized as they are different words. Aside from that, I did have certain confusion with the section organization of the forum (which I will address at "Site Layout" section right after this one). Though overall, I have a good first impression of the forum.
Let us think further about the skin and appearance of Gamingforce's forum. I see that there are some themes available for guests and members. First of all, it is great to see that members and guests can choose color scheme which suits them best, either light or dark one. Basically, each theme has points I like and dislike.
What strikes eyes the most in first look is the background images and structures, for me. The current default theme ("Revolt (dark)") has an interesting pattern occupying around 1/4 of the background area, while the rest is just plain black. I do not really understand its correlation to the niche, although it does not always have to. It works, to a certain extent, not to distract eyes away from the forum body but not too plain. It can probably be sparked up by adding colors to it, maybe flow lines of greens to give an impression of 'living' background. Theme "Skyrim" has the best background organization, in my opinion; not too much to occupy the whole space to hurt the eyes, but enough to leave proper impression to visitors. A plain "Deviant 3" background also works because it is supported with appropriate setting and placement of other theme elements.
Moving on to the banner, each theme has their own banner customized to match each theme. At least that is a good start. One room for improvement is related to how to make the banners more spiced up but not out of place. For example, the banners for currently default theme and "Skyrim" theme consist of text only (and the text does not seem to be aligned properly in "Skyrim", as if rotated slightly) while the banner for "Xbox (light)" theme has the logo of Xbox and a soldier as background images which do not blend well each other and with the background header somehow. Products for GF theme series look pretty unique, unfortunately the text is hard to read because of the strange font type. The attempts have been growing towards special and unique style, which can be tweaked more to make them even smoother and more appealing. Only one banner has integrated other images in the banner, which can definitely be explored more. Favicon or most popular games discussed can also be included to perk things up.
Now about the body of the forum itself. There are welcome box, member of the month box, forum sections, and widgets. One similar problem I notice happen in generally all themes is about color combination. For example, the image "GF" in welcome box and the column displaying the avatar and links to member of the month are always green no matter what the theme is. It works with the default theme or "Xbox (light)" theme which has green color scheme, but it stands out as strange if I choose any of GF theme series. The welcome box in "GF Enlighten" has text in dark blue color. Still visible, but rather borderline. The category/forum icons range from very simple as in "Deviant 3" or "X Game (light)", simplistic-but-pretty design as in default theme, to complicated-and-hard-to-read as in GF theme series. Some text and user group colors are too dark to be read comfortably in dark themes, such as dark blue and dark red colors. If a simple code tweak in color to make it lighter can help save readers' eyes from excessive effort in reading, it is definitely worth trying.
The buttons and topic/post-related icons are generally okay. It is perhaps better to remove the bullet and "Current mood:" text before the mood image to save space and make the mini profile looks tidier and more professional. The category expand/collapse button in default theme looks unique, although only the middle button actually works. That is quite strange for me, and I think having only one button where it actually works will look better. The widgets need a regular clean-up to make them look tidy. The "I've forgotten my password" link in sign in box joins the previous line which makes it look strange. The text on affiliates box may not be too necessary as long as the images are shown and are linked to the right places. That way you can save some space and avoid unnecessary clutter.
Footer looks generally okay, no serious problem there. The current default theme has the statistics information in two lines which make the theme looks weird. Other than that, the footer has been pretty tidy, with credits and copyright intact.
For website page, the theme is based on "Revolt (dark)" theme, which means it is only compatible with the current default theme. Not much I can say here because it goes accordingly to the theme it is based on.
Site Layout – (10 out of 20)
I will start with the overall forum layout and organization before specifically talking about categories, forums, and sub-forums. One weakness which I think dominates the layout and makes me not very comfortable is repetition. There are many duplicated elements seen at forum index, which can actually save some space and hopefully make browsing more enjoyable.
Starting from the very top, there is one bar which contains only links to three social networks. Scrolling down I also see these links on the navigation menu bar under "Social Sites" and on the widget "Follow/+1". This is an overkill, in my opinion. For best exposure, though, it seems that widget is the best option. Because you can display the number of followers to show how popular the channel is, maybe even showing some of the latest tweets. Same goes with the Facebook profile which can be added to outer websites. All social network accounts can be combined in one widget and save space in the header.
The second repeated element is the sign in button/form. There are three of them: one next to the banner, one in welcome box, and one in widget. I actually like the idea of welcome box. It reminds me of the default welcome box ZetaBoards forums have, which is very handy. Guests can directly sign in if they already have an account, or get directed to registration screen through a link if they have not. This is possible from a simple welcome box. That's why there is no need to have so many links of them in one page.
The navigation menu looks okay. Board rules link is repeated at the bottom of the page, with privacy policy, but the location is pretty far apart so it can be justified. "Social Sites" menu can be removed. Menu with only one sub-menu, like in "Affiliates" is probably better without sub-menu as you allow the menu itself to be clickable.
Editing the header mainly will clear up much space available solely for the banner. The height can be reduced if necessary, giving space for background image and for the banner displaying the forum title and tagline/motto to shine. Same goes with the widget, cleaning it up will allow more space to promote the social networks even more if you want to.
About the categories/forums layout, I actually do not think there is serious concern with them. The categories and forums are relatively well-populated and activity seems to be going pretty good and equal among them. I thought it would not be a good idea to separate discussions about consoles and its games with news and updates, but it seems to work fine. Some feel too strange to stand alone, such as "Release Dates" and "Trailers" as they are heavily related to the games and can be posted together with news articles or inside threads for each game. The off-topic sections are also well-populated, even the advertisement section which is hardly related to games.
Website's layout is more or less okay. There is huge blank space in sidebar/widget area because there are more articles to show than widgets to add. So if you want to save readers from too much scrolling, you can reduce the number of articles shown there. It may be better to move up the "Read More" links in some articles as they are way too long before the "Read More" link appears, such as in "Sony E3 Press Conference" article.
Statistics and Activity – (14 out of 20)
Gamingforce has 128,741 posts and 1,140 members at the moment this review is made. It roughly means around 113 posts per member. To be able to reach such number displays a series of persistent hard work throughout 6 years. Much respect for you. Around 1/4 posts are made by the administrator/founder/owner while the rest is divided among some top posters and other members with medium amount of posts. The post gap is rather big, but it shows how passionate and dedicated the administrator is. If it can be supported by the same level of enthusiasm by other members and staff members, that will be perfect.
Looking deeper into the sections, unfortunately activity seems rather low. There are not too many posts made within the last days of May. Others are made around mid-May, which is quite far away. Even though the variation of the threads look pretty good which give rooms for discussions. This somehow coincides with my observation during the process of making this review that I have not seen the number of members who come online in a day to be only around 10 members. It is quite a sad fact since the forum has more than a thousand members but only 10 visit daily. That is probably the reason to the decline in replies at the forum.
For staff members and members ratio, honestly I am rather confused with the groups seen in moderating team page. I assume there is only one administrator who handles both forum and website, 4 global moderators, 1 sectional moderator, and 1 website staff. I am not sure if the moderators have access to the website and help to manage the website too. But in worst scenario they are totally separated, it seems like you will need to strengthen the team. There are enough forum staff members; workload can be divided between global moderators to oversee the whole forum. Now website definitely needs more helping hand than just 2 managers, so there is one room to improve there.
Content – (12 out of 20)
I always find it hard to start writing about this section, because it is always specific and tricky. Despite what I said things may not instantly pick up, but hopefully I can at least give you some ideas of what area to explore to bring out the best of the forum.
I have probably mentioned this above, but the main concern of the content is about interaction and discussion. It looks like the variety of topics is pretty good, but unfortunately I do not see many replies to them. Discussion are mainly built by the administrator, which shows dedication, but it needs more than one brain to get the trend starts and more elaborated posts to make things more enjoyable. The rate of new threads appearing is also not too bad, which shows that there are actually bases of discussions, but they lack participants.
I will use an article as example. I found this "
Final Fantasy IV - The Legend Goes On" while browsing around, and it automatically invited me in because I was playing this game before I found my Final Fantasy IX and decided to play that one instead. Even though I had only been playing for a while, I found the article very interesting because it connected the events and facts I saw on the game. I had few ideas which I could write down as a reply, but as I scrolled down the three replies I saw was only one line. Two of them stated that they played the game, but didn't actually offer a post which can continue discussion. I find this such a waste because the article is a good one for me which opens room for discussions as the author tried to analyze the game plot and characters.
"Website Articles" is an interesting place for me. Looks like it's the place where old articles from the blog is kept because I don't see new articles there. However, to have the same article posted in both forum and website is quite redundant because usually conversation only takes place in one of them. Wherever it is, do the best to encourage discussion by not only giving opinion, but also try to get in deeper than usual standard opinions.
I am not sure what attempts you have done to try to bring old members back to the forum. I notice E3 is coming up, which seems to be very popular for the forum, so this can be an event to "abuse" as much as possible. Contact members by sending newsletters. The idea to use banner in signature as advertised in recent thread is also a good idea. Perhaps, if necessary and if affordable, you can create contest or event related to E3 which can pump interest even more. Offer prizes or special gifts for those who can reach target decided previously.
There is also a "Member of the Month" award. What is it based on? This can be yet another award for those who are actively participating in discussion, leading new members in replying to existing threads, and so on.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (16 out of 20)
This section has two parts to decide the score on. From professionalism, it has been shown well around the forum. The titles of the categories, forums, and sub-forums are pretty good, although they can be more creative. Some changes can still be made, such as the names for "Important News & Updates" and "Gamingforce Chat & Help". I like the way you used "Start Screen" as forum title; the same effort should be done to every title in the forum. Same goes for forum descriptions. Unique names can be supported with clear descriptions about what the section can be used for. The spelling and grammar are generally okay, only minor mistakes happen which are not very serious. From the rules page, I notice some mistakes as pointed below, corrected in bold part. Mistakes are bound to happen, so do your best to always keep the content fresh and clean.
6. Advertising ... your posts you will be instantly banned with all posts made deleted.
10. Posting News If you post any news on this forum make sure you write the source!
Do not forget credits too when taking information from another website. I do not see this being applied in all articles of the website. Unless for editorial or game review articles, it will be best to put all credits properly.
Total Score - (64 out of 100)
Final Remarks:
Gamingforce has been going around for 6 years. That is not a small number for a community to establish itself and decide on its identity. I believe Gamingforce has reached that stage. The problem now is about maintaining the interest. This is bound to happen; old faces disappear, new faces come by. You will have to pump out the best of the forum, from activities to content, to keep them interested and still have the feeling of "staying home" when visiting the forum. Best of luck for you!
Strengths:
- - Large variation of themes
- Unique board layout
- Content variation
Weaknesses:
- - Theme elements are yet to complement each other
- Repetitive forum add-ons
- Lack of participation from forum members in discussion
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