Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
I'm going to go ahead and start with the website rather than the forum index as this is a full review.
First thing I have to say is I love the theme and the blog template and you seem to write some nice entries. Content is key, so keep them up.
One thing I have to say is that the navigation is a little tricky. It's not as clear to find your way to the community forums as it should be, I would consider trying to brighten this up or emphasize it a bit more.
Your actual homepage ( /thepit ) seems to be looking great, but as I said emphasize that you have a forum a little more. If I was just skimming the site as a guest I probably wouldn't notice the link to your community forums.
Overall the first impressions are pretty good, but I have to take a few points off because it's a little tricky to find the Community Forums link.
(Scored 17/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
The layout as I said is a little confusing as the Community Forums link isn't emphasized, but overall the blog and website layout is superb.
Now, moving onto the layout the forum, I see that you haven't overdone the boards but the order is a little concerning. You shouldn't have your niche forums first, you should have your GOREPIT.NET board first.
I would suggest setting it up as follows:
Category: GOREPIT.NET
--Board: News/Updates
--Board: Suggestions/Feedback
--Board: Introductions Board
( Move Introductions to this new area and create a suggestions board )
I also suggest you condense some of the Off Topic boards. Forum Games should be a child forum of " The Pit "
Your Horror gaming boards aren't getting a lot of activity so I'd suggest you delete them or possibly change them around somewhat. No sense in keeping a board up that has little activity. Especially an entire category. If you compare this entire category to the popularity your other boards have, you'll notice it's senseless to keep these boards up.
Other than moving that main board to the top and ditching the gaming category, I think you've got a great layout on here.
(Scored 16/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Your board was founded back in January, and I think that you're doing great in terms of activity with 20,000 posts, but the 133 members is a little low. I would suggest that you do some member registration exchanges or something along those lines.
(Scored 18/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
You've got one admin and one global moderator, this is great. I was expecting to see another over-staffed board but you've got it under control. I'd say around now or when you reach 25k posts is time to pick up another moderator.
Both of your staff members are EXTREMELY active and very kind at welcoming members and in their daily posts.
(Scored 19/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
Looking pretty good here, not seeing any spelling errors and the board is very professional looking for a Horror Board
🙂
(Scored 20/20)
Total Score - 90 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks:
You've got a great looking site here. You did an excellent job setting it up. You and your staff care very much about the board and seem to work very hard each day to keep it active and popular.
Forums like this have a great chance at succeeding. I think you will do great.
One thing I did have an issue with was the ease of registration. It's almost impossible to read the fields to select from the drop down boxes, and it's ridiculous to have to fill out that entire thing to register, you've got way too many boxes and such on that registration page. Let members choose to fill this out when they are already registered and want to fill out their profiles.
What was most liked about the website/forums:
I liked how the layout is, the theme, and I also loved the dedication of your staff. With a staff this dedicated the board is bound to succeed.
What was disliked most about the website/forums:
Not a lot other than the ease of registration and the board layout issues I pointed out.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website?
I already am a member but I would consider posting more often if you fix that board layout.
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