Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
The first thing I notice about your forum, as people so commonly do, is your banner. I actually don’t know any people in the banner (my music choices consist of Emilie Autumn and Eminem), but I do know something; that is one heck of a banner. The edges of the banner are noticeable. You can see where the banner is and ends and where the background of it starts. If possible, you may want to line up the exact color of the forums banner background to the banner itself background, which the main collage-like banner fades into. That isn’t really a big issue, and isn’t worth loosing sleep over, but with so much competition it would benefit to try to do everything possible, fix every little thing, to try to bring your forum to the top and make it near perfect. (Though a perfect forum is not possible to achieve; there will always be someone who finds something they don’t like.)
I really like the music video under the navigation bar that apparently is the song of the month. I do have one problem with it though - on Chrome it doesn’t show up. That may just be my computer, but then it may not be. If possible you may want to look into it or ask friends using Chrome if the music video shows up for them.
I think that if you made a YouTube account and made the videos yourself with the lyrics in the video or some sort of production with the chosen song it would be really unique and neat. It may not be possible to perform, but at bare minimum it’s possible to get the graphics going across the screen. Not only would it be very unique and neat to make the music videos yourself, but it could also bring some activity to the forum. Think of how many people search to listen to a certain song or an artist daily. Or if that’s too big of a perspective, I’ll say that I look up 20+ songs a day on Youtube to listen to daily. In the music videos you would make you could also link Music Junkies in the description and on your profile, and if people like your video or just feel like clicking, then they will click the link and you may have a new member. Even if they do not register, one more unique view and visitor is better than none and not trying. It could also get the word of Music Junkies out there more. That’s just a thought for you to consider though.
Moving along, the background of the forum fits in with the theme well. It makes me think of some old club or dance with the bright lights flickering across the walls. Even without the connection to that though, the forum background is just plan
pretty.
I like the forums overall look quite a bit, but I think that the “Proudly Hosted By Pluto Hosting” could be changed. Often, users click well designed images as opposed to links. You have an affiliate box above the statistics, so why not add a Pluto Hosting affiliate button to that (or make one/get someone to make one if they do not have one) box with the others. Having a link outside of the forum body itself and the overall layout with it just sitting there on top of the forum background can also make the forum itself look a bit off or unbalanced. The host may require that you have that specific link and writing, so if they do require you to have that link there then forget my suggestion.
I notice that the statistics, user control panel, and who is online at the bottom is different from the rest of the forum though. The rest of the forum has edges that are rounded (which looks very nice by the way) whereas the user control panel, statistics, and who is online does not. That makes the forum look a bit sloppy at the bottom, and just completely unsymmetrical. I’d recommend changing that as a priority, as I’m sure that you easily can with a change of a few codes.
It is great that your forum has a favicon; so many forums just forget about them as of recent. But really, they help you and when a member bookmarks your site it can make your site stand out a bit more than the others which increases the possibility of them re clicking it and visiting your site again. However, your favicon looks extremely pixilated and just odd. Cleaning up the current one you have (making it look less pixilated and cleaner) or getting a new but similar one is what I would recommend. I like the idea you have with the favicon, it fits in with the rest of the forum and its icons, but with it that pixilated it can be hard to tell its supposed to even be a music note at a glance.
Overall, it is a very nice looking forum with only a few flaws.
(Scored 14/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
I really like how you seat up the site - it is in the classic “site information, main content, sub content, off topic” layout which is not unique, but that does not mean that it is bad. I really like certain names of the forums and categories I.e. the category name “Tone deaf”. Maybe my sense of humor is more dry than I had assumed it was, but that made me giggle since it fits in with the forums topic.
At first glance it looks like you have a really large amount of forum categories. But looking closer, most of the forums are filled and if you combined the genres it would make the forums and content inside the forums look sloppy. I have one suggestion with this though, the forums that only have five or six or a really low amount in comparison to the other forum on the site with 50+ topics in them, to try to make some new topics in those forums. I.e. “drums & percussion” and “vocals”. It could just be how I view it, but it makes the rest of your forum look less active with less posts than it really does have if you have four or five forums with such little topics in them. And please understand, by saying that you should add to those forum I do not mean that you should make two word, meaningless and pointless topics to make the post count look higher. That’s really a high no-no in any of the forums, regardless if it is purposely for post count or not.
Also, there isn't a classical music forum in the "music discussion" forum. That's not an issue or anything big, just thought I would point that out in case you forgot the great Bachs genre.
😉
Next, I think that you should move the forum "Member Journals" to the "tone deaf" forum. Because the category that it is currently under is labeled "site" whereas it really doesn't fit in with the other forums in that category. The other forums in that category are news, suggestions, and welcoming new members. The members journals would fit in better in the tone deaf forum because it isn't really directly effecting the site nor is it really important, yet it is off topic.
(Scored 17/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
I think it would be safe to assume that Music Junkies was once a decently active forum. I calculated that each member has about sixty-nine posts. (I got that by dividing the amount of posts by the amount of users in case you were wondering) I don’t judge based on the amount of activity from the time that the forum opened because some forums take longer to get off their feet, whereas others get off the ground as soon as they start up. Forums are like snow flakes; each one is different (don’t take that saying to heart though, because if a forum is a copy of another forum then that saying obviously would be incorrect and not make much sense). But the fact that your forum has the statistics of about sixty nine posts per user is great, and gives off the impression that members are active and enjoy contributing to the community and there are a lot of discussions going on (even if there is not)
Like I mentioned above, I think that you need to add some quality content and just generally more topics to the forums that only have five or six topics. The ones that I think really need some are - “Bass”, “Drums & Percussion”, “Vocals”, “Music & Concert Reviews”, and “Song/Album Battles”.
And to be completely honest, I would expect this forum to be so much more active than it is right now. I think that if a bit more work was put in to keep it active and keep members, than it wouldn't be such a lonely place. The activity and amount of active members are not really pleasing. In case you aren’t keen on making the topics yourself, are out of topic ideas, don’t have enough time, or whatever, here are some ideas to get some posts and content in those forums -
- The most obvious one would be post exchanges and packages. But adding a note in the bottom of the topic or post that you request the posts/topics to try to post in x and x sections would be a good idea. Maybe request on about six forums or so. For each request that they post in x, y, and z forums or try to stick to those sections.
- Start a contest. Maybe not directly a posting contest, as that is getting a bit old, but perhaps a more unique one but you have to have x amount of posts to enter it. That won’t necessarily bring posts the forums I mentioned above, but there is a chance that it will and that chance is better than on chance at all.
- Making a few discussion-brewing topics yourself (I know I said that these were for if you didn’t want to make them yourself) then hopefully some members (one or two is better than none) will reply, and that could encourage others and such to do the same. Staff set an example, so if the staff are not posting, then how do you expect the members to?
- Ask a friend to help you out and try to make posts in those forum. Friends are titled that for a reason, and about eighty percent of the time they will gladly help you out and make a few posts.
(Scored 15/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
I actually couldn't see the moderation overview page nor the general "the team" page that is linked on the index. So actually, I can't see how many moderators, administrators, or general staff members you have to judge them on their moderation and activity.
But, though the forum I've only seen two moderators, a few VIPs, and yourself as an administrator. Pardon if I've missed any other staff, but not being able to clearly have it laid out as to who is staff and who is not makes this difficult. Besides, if I haven't seen the other moderators and administrators, it means that they are not active, so you wouldn't want them there anyway to bring your score down.
Regardless, the staff that I do see are doing a rather good job. I see them contributing interesting, unique, and discussable topics (by that I mean not just "what's your favorite color" kind of topics that require only one word answers and no actual discussion.).
I think that the current amount of administrators you have is great. Only yourself, so only you have access to the admin control panel. If you allow others to be an admin, then that could cause more problems than it could help the site, especially since your forum doesn't seem to require much changing on the index or directly forum services to be updated daily or often. having only yourself as an admin also means that there's less of a chance for one of your administrators accounts to be compromised to hurt your forum. The amount of moderators (from what I can see) you have is also good, the forum itself currently is not extremely active, but it once was and you having two moderators could be considered a bit little, but it's fine for now. I would recommend though, that once your forum gains a bit more activity that you add one more moderator. Then, in my opinion your staff team would be great.
(Scored 18/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I couldn't find any problems regarding your spelling and grammar on the index page directly. Your forum descriptions are also good; a few sentences, not too many as to stretch the index or just make it look bad, but not to little as to provide no information about what that forum itself is individually about. There is also no spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors that I have found in the descriptions either.
However, I did notice that with some forums you did this - "Song/Album Battles", and with other you did this - "Rap & Hip Hop". I think that you should stick to one or the other. Yes, they are in different categories where you did that, but I think that sticking to one way of saying "and" or "or" or "and or" as opposed to switching them. I think that it would be better to use the "&" instead of the "/" simply because it is more common to do that and it looks better. I realize that you're trying to say "Song and or album battles", but when you use the "&" you are basically saying and doing the same thing.
(Scored 19/20)
Total Score - 83/100
Final Remarks: This forum is really a great one and it can go really far, it is currently really good but could use some work.
What was most liked about the website/forums: The general look of it (especially the banner).
What was disliked most about the website/forums: The inactivity, but since you requested to go easy on that in the main post, I didn't mention much about that. Other than that, the lack of topics in certain forums.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? I actually would join it in its current state, but getting more activity and making the changes I mentioned above would make me want to join even more.
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