Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
Oh how your site has come along. I remember your forum being one of the worst looking forums I had seen in my life, to now. Now it looks GREAT, those reviews really helped, eh?
😛 Seriously, that banner is awesome. The theme impresses me for one specific reason - it's different. Most phpBB skins I've found look the same. It begins to get generic, but yours it a lot different. It has "dirty" look, but the skin is still "clean" if you know what I mean. The skin is very slick looking and I love the gradient it has. The only thing is the font on posts is that moderately dark blue, it should be more...vibrant or something. You've got these bright sigs and avys, and those really deter the attention away from what should matter, the posts. I'm not saying make your post font like yellow or something extreme, but I would consider something different than the current one. I liked your rank images, but the Administrator one doesn't really match the others. It's not like an Army-style rank, like the others are.
(Scored 17/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
There is one minor thing I noticed with your banner. The colors are like mismatched, so at first I read it as, "Gaming News: The premier gaming website NOW." and not "Gaming News Now" as it should be. As far as your physical layout, it's fine. Unlike so many forums I've seen, you don't have a million off-topic forums and actually focus on games. One thing I'd like to suggest is cutting down on the size peoples' sigs can be. One specific user had this huge signature with lots of moving elements and stuff, it's really distracting. Just cutting down a little on that can help. Other than those minor things I pointed out, your layout is fine. All your forums fit into their respective category correctly.
(Scored 15/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
This is where your forum's main downfall is. For being open since may, your member count is great, but the thing that matters isn't; and that thing is post count. 3,000 or so posts in 5 months isn't that good. That's less than 1K/month, which your forum should be getting. Some of your forums have little to no posts in them, which really shouldn't be true of a forum your age. Even if you have to make a post or two in them, do so, that way you aren't having forums with no posts, that's gonna scare guests away. Maybe do some post exchanges and ask the person doing the exchange focus on those forums. Maybe that would get more people to join, and in turn, increase the activity on your forum. This is really your forum's only huge problem.
(Scored 6/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
Based on what I've seen I think you have 3 admins and 1 moderator. If so, then meh, it could be worse. I mean, your forum really doesn't need that many but it's fine. Your staff doesn't seem to be too professional though. For example, one of the announcements is, "Please Read This Every Members" This is completely screwed up. It should be, "Please read this all members!" because all words should NOT be capital, and "every members" does not make sense. Plus the content in the thread itself isn't done right. I'm not just picking on that mod, there are other threads and posts just like that - just using that announcement as an example. Your staff is active and do post, which is good. It's just the quality could be improved.
(Scored 16/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
All errors were mostly minor, and overall your spelling was great. However, here are the errors I noticed:
"Cross-Platform Games and PC Games are all in here." should be, "Cross-Platform games and PC games are all in here."
"PSP, DS, iPhone, Anything you play with your hands that's a gaming console, post in here." should be, "PSP, DS, iPhone; anything you play with your hands that's a gaming console, post in here."
"xBox 360" should be, "Xbox 360"
"Want a clan logo? Or a signature? Ask in here." should be, "Want a clan logo or a signature? Ask in here."
All professionalism issues I mentioned in staff moderation.
(Scored 18/20)
Total Score - 72 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: Your forum is definitely improving.
What was most liked about the website/forums: The skin.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: The activity.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? There is nothing sticking out as something that would keep people from joining.
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