Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
I'm not feeling this skin, sorry. The color scheme is just way off. It's like an amber color surrounded by an odd silver metallic, with a dark blue background. Also look at the text "Pinned Topics", "Topic Started:", and such. It doesn't look well at the black bar behind it at all. There are a few things I did like though. The orange color icons worked well with the gray box layout. Also, one thing that I did like was that your icons, despite being on a darker background, did not look pixelated. On some other forums, there are like white pixels around them, thankfully your forum didn't have that. Also, I'm glad your post's font was white, instead of, believe it or not some forums have this, black or some other dark color. Still though, the entire skin looks sort of mashed together randomly, the textures don't go together, etc.
(Scored 14/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Man you have really put a lot of work into setting this thing up. Your layout is good for a lot of reasons. Your forums have long, thorough descriptions. They show dedication and ensure nobody gets confused. Also, unlike a lot of forums, you don't have too many off-topic forums. Four is fine. Your layout focuses on what your forum is about, which is good. A lot of your RP ideas are very original, I like it. The only layout thing I can complain about is that I don't like the fact that your chatbox appears at the bottom of every single page. It could be kept at the index and not on every page. That would make it less annoying.
(Scored 19/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
I understand that RPs can be particularly hard to get members for and posts for. I understand and sympathize for that. But really, for being open since August, you should have at least 1,000 posts. Consider this. You and your other staff member together have over half of the forum posts. Only 5 total members (not including staff) have over 10 posts. That's a bit underwhelming. You don't have many active players it seems. I would rev up promotion efforts. Do some more post exchanges, those can rack up posts fairly well and make your forum appear more active. Also, it can seem intimidating to new members when staff have most of the posts in a forum, so you should definitely get some real members posting.
(Scored 11/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
I must applaud you all. You really have put some major time into setting this RP up. Man, there are templates everywhere, everything is described in detail, etc. You've done a very nice job. Both of you all seem to be very active. However, some of your posts lacked in the professionalism side. For example, "1) There is no magic in the haven Rp, so don’t go making wizards or characters that shoot fire out there bums. . ." should be, "1) There is no magic in the Haven Rp, so don’t go making wizards or characters that shoot fire out their bums. . ." and "2) Please be detailed in most of your sections, for example for cloths. . ." should be, "2) Please be detailed in most of your sections, for example for clothes. . ." You get the idea. You should run your posts through a spell checker. That would really make things look nice. Other than that, you all do very good running the forum.
(Scored 17/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I touched on this a bit in Staff Moderation, but here I'm going to attempt to focus on the board descriptions:
"All the important new, and not so important news will be posted here for you to read. Anything important to the Haven Rp or related to this board will be here for your viewing pleasure." should be, "All the important news, and not so important news will be posted here for you to read. Anything important to the Haven Rp, or related to this board, will be here for your viewing pleasure."
"Come stand up on the Introduction Stage and introduce yourself to all of us, if your new here going for a while, or got an important announcement to tell everyone this is the place to do it." should be, "Come stand up on the Introduction Stage and introduce yourself to all of us. If you're new here, going for a while, or have an important announcement to tell everyone, this is the place to do it."
"Problems with the board or something round here, please let us help you to help us make the Haven Rp a better place. Post your problems in here so our friendly staff can help out in anyway possible." should be, "Problems with the board or something around here? Please let us help you to help us make the Haven Rp a better place. Post your problems in here so our friendly staff can help out in anyway possible."
"Feel the need to be creative, or draw something, well this is your big chance to show off your work and see what others" should be, "Feel the need to be creative or draw something? Well this is your big chance to show off your work and see what others have created."
I think you get the idea. There are more than that, but again, run spelling and grammar checks.
(Scored 9/20)
Total Score - 70 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: You have a good setup, but that setup could use a spelling check.
What was most liked about the website/forums: Layout, staff moderation.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: Skin, stats, spelling.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Sorry, I don't really get into RPs. However, I would fix up the board descriptions, and adjust the skin.
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