Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
My first impression of your website was a mix between a, “Wow”, and a, “Nice Portal”. Then I realized that wasn’t the portal
😛 It was just the introduction and I scrolled down to see a shout box and the rest of the boards.
This is alright, while I firmly believe in having a homepage to go along with your forum instead of putting it right there in front of the users face. This may make going to the forum unpleasant and/or a turn off for some guests, seeing with reasons to join right in front of their face every time they visit the board home.
My first impression on the design was, is this a Mario forum, or a alien technician forum. This is a bit harsh, coming from me, but it is the truth. This is what I thought until I saw you’re logo. The logo is nice, but the color scheme of the entire forum could be changed to something like a sky background with Mario on it, instead of a really dark gaming type forum.
Otherwise, I quite like your forum, and I might just have to recommend it to some Mario fanatics if I come across any looking for others to connect to.
🙂
(Score: 18/20)
Site Layout
As said in the above section, I disagree with the site info being up on top every time you visit the forum index as a guest, but as a member the site looks superb and is easy to read. I don’t like that a shout box is on top, but you’re users seem to enjoy it, so I won’t mark you off for that.
Your first category, “Mario Forums”, has four boards in it. This could be reduced to three in the least. You could change, “MF News” to “Mario Forums” and put “Feedback & Help”, and “MF News” inside of it, and even make a new board called, “Community Matters”, and put, “Introduce Yourself”, and “Personal Announcements” in that, shortening the category to two boards, this will both decrease page load times and give users a reason to stay longer on your website.
Your second category, “Nintendo”, has a whopping five categories, as this seems to be your main category you are targeting users to, you may want to clean it up a slight bit. You could make a board named, “Systems”, and put, “Consoles”, and “Handhelds”, in there. The Mario board is fine, but I’d move this up to the top as this is the main board you are probably trying to direct users to. You could put, “Reviews and Stuff” into “General Gaming”, but this just a suggestions. This would clean this category into three categories, instead of five.
Your third and final category, “Community”, has four boards in it, and a few sub boards. This could also be shortened a bit and made more visually appealing. You could put, “The Zone!” into, “Off Topic Chat”, as, “The Zone!” is basically a secondary off topic chat board, which is kind of useless, but if it must stay, I’d say move it on into, “Off Topic Chat”. This would shorten it to three boards and would make your forum a lot more visually appealing to your guests.
You must be saying, wow this reviewer is really nitpicking here, and I’m only doing this because I do care about your website and am trying to help you improve it. The aforementioned would help increase page load times and would keep you’re visitors here for a longer time than normal.
(Scored 19/20)
Statistics and Activity
For being open a year and one month, your statistics are stunning! With 75,611 posts, 188 members (WOW!). If my math were to work out correctly, each of your members would have around 418 posts, and that is stunning to me as a reviewer. Keep going, and you will be one of the best Mario forums around the net. I have nothing more to say on your statistics, because I can’t blabber at you to improve anything.
Stunning job, keep at it!
(Scored 20/20)
Staff Moderation
One administrator, and three moderators is just fine for your board size, and I might even say add another moderator, but then again you might wait to get more users before you do that. Two of your moderators are managing to post over 70 posts per day, this is absolutely STUNNING. Wow! One of your moderators is posting 12 posts per day, and this is still a great achievement. You did a great job on picking you’re staff for this forum.
(Scored 20/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
I’ll be nitpicking here to, as I don’t want to see grammar mistakes on such a great forum, so stay with me. It might not be as bad as you think.
I will format fixes in a specific way: What you have;
My Fix
My fix will be in bold, and the things I fixed will be underlined on your side.
In your first category, “Mario Forums”:
In “MF News”:
Here you will find out about all (
the) changes and new things happening here at (
the) Mario Forums. News will be posted only by
admins and
moderators.;
Here you will find out about all the changes and new things going on here at the Mario Forums. News will only be posted by Administrators and Moderators.
In “Feedback & Help”:
Would you like something added or changed? Give us suggestions here! This is also the place to report problems and ask for help.;
Would you like something added or changed on the forum, then send your suggestions our way, as well as report your problems here. (Completely reworded).
In “Introduce Yourself”:
New here? Come introduce yourself here! Let us get to know you and you can get to know us.;
If you’re new here, then come on in and introduce yourself, let us get to know each other. (Just made it flow a bit more, no grammar or precise fixes.)
In your second category, "Nintendo":
In “Reviews and Stuff”:
This is the place to post all (
of) your guides, reviews, and game
info.;
This is the place to post all of your guides, reviews, and game information.
In your last category, "Community":
In “Off Topic Chat”:
Time to sit back and relax! Anything unrelated to gaming belongs in here.
Let us get to know you.;
Time to sit back and relax! Anything unrelated to gaming belongs in here. Let us get to know you. (I feel that the last sentence in that is really unnecessary.)
In “Entertainment”:
What do you do in your spare time? Watch TV? Listen to music? Discuss TV, movies, and music here!; What do you do in your spare time? Do you watch TV, listen to music, or enjoy watching movies? Discuss your favorites here. (Just reworded it).
In “The Zone!”:
Bored? This is the place to be! Play all your favourite forum games here, post whatever you wanna post. Regular rules do not apply here. However, please respect all members.; If you’re bored, this is the place to be. Play your favourite forum games, and post whatever you want to post. Regular rules do not apply here, however you must continue to respect all members. (Reworded and fixed a word (Wanna)).
Overall, these are just simple errors and can be fixed easily; they seem to be just overlooked errors. Believe me; we all do it everyone now and then.
Your professionalism as an administrator seems fine, and you take care of business when it needs to be done. Your professionalism, however, when it comes to board titles and descriptions seem a bit rushed, and could be fixed with a nice long review of you’re work.
(Scored 15/20)
Total Score - 92/100
Final Remarks
You’re forum is so far, superb but could use a little work. Keep the updates coming and work a bit more on your forums style and you will be a Nintendo forum master.
Strong Points
- Statistics and Activity
- Staff Moderation
- Site Layout
Things to Improve
- Statistics and Activity
- Site Layout
- Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
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