Naruto RPG Review

HotfireLegend

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Name of Site: Naruto RPG
Site Link: http://naruto-role-play-rpg.forumotion.com/ (TLD may come soon)
Type of Review ( Small/Medium/Large/Website/Blog ): Large
Date Site Opened: 2010-01-09
Demo Account for Reviewer (Forums Only): -
Additional Notes: Ignore lack of domain name for now, thanks. (Also take into consideration many members are revising for exams when grading activity).
 
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Large Forum Review




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First Impressions


Packed. That is what I feel for the first visit. You have so many content in the main body and the site widget that I have to admit makes me confused quite a bit in the beginning. The design is good, very much reflecting "Naruto" from the font used, the color scheme of the whole forum, and the cursor. Scrolling down the forum seems to be quite active in terms of posting although not many users visit lately even though you have a large number of members. All in all in first sight it is inviting for the fans of Naruto series especially since your forum is themed very close to it although rather confusing.

(Score: 12/15)

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Appearance


Your theme is very much based on Naruto series. That matches the name in a good way. I like how you try to apply the font and color of Naruto series to the forum. Combining orange-yellowish with dark background works concentrate people's attention to the center/body of the forum.

Banner/logo wise you have a huge and clean banner. It stands out a lot. You may want to make it even more interesting by adding pictures to it but still keeping it to blend with the dark background. I also noticed you use one of the standard ForuMotion favicons. If I remember correctly there is a way to upload your own favicon so you may as well try that to make your site even more personal and unique.

I feel that the body has too much content. It makes you feel confused of which one to look for and pay attention to in the first place. One way to tackle this impression would be to widen the body area a little bit more to give space between the forum and the side widget. Just a little space will help to declare clear line between additional information and the main site. Then for the side widget, I think it would be best if you decrease the number or shorten several side widgets. For example, you may want to remove the staff list or change the icons to text only if you really need it there. Or you can cut the latest topic length by half, or make it to scroll so that it takes up less space but still provide the same amount of information. You can take off the top posting users too, in my opinion, or move it to the blank space below the statistics of the forum so it doesn't feel too stuffed up at the left side.

The category/forum icons which you put below the name of each section are good ones, but they don't really blend well with the theme. The icons are in gray or a little bit blue while the rest of the forum is orange and rather dark. Keep up the idea but try to change it into more matching sets for maximum exploration of your current theme. It looks especially weird for the first forum to have the word "Classic" spelled out like that while the rest have pictures for them. Consistency is important to give the impression of tidy, so you should work on that.

The topic icons are rather messed up for me. You have pictures for announcements and sticky threads, but you use words like "No New" or "Locked" for the normal threads, making the column for topic icons stretched too big. That doesn't look good for announcements and sticky threads. Choose either set; make all with pictures or all with texts. Personally I favor the picture sets since I think it is more beautiful and good-looking than simply texts. You can change this once in a while if you want to keep the feeling of new and refreshed.

(Score: 11/20)

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Statistics and Activity


Naruto RPG has 66,411 posts and 787 members in around two years since you first opened. That is a long way to go and for you to achieve this level that is a great work. Roughly dividing it, it means around 84 posts per members. With the state of your forum, I believe there could have been more. I also checked and found out that you have 317 members with 0 posts. That is almost half of the total forum members you have. From the top posters down, only around 200 members have significant number of posts (more than 20 posts). The amount of visitors over the last 48 hours for such a big forum is only a few as well. I understand if you say some members are still in their exam periods. You still have homework how to get members attention. You may want to wipe out old and inactive accounts to fix the ratio and try to invite more new members and active ones.

(Score: 12/20)

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Ratios


It is hard for me to decide on the ratio of forums and categories since you turned all the forums to have their own categories. I don't truly understand what "NRPG Classics" mean (I believe it is from your old forum or something like that) but there is almost to no content to it so you can probably merge it somewhere else. I also think that it would be better if you take out all the sub-forums and make it as forums of the categories. That way visitors can see more what your forum offers without having to click too much since they are too deep.

The number of staff members compared to the total users is proportional enough. They are not very visible since each is assign to different non-staff user groups, which is fine by me. With the number of your active members two administrators may suffice for now, but maybe with one more moderator you will be more stable. You didn't list moderators in your staff list side widget so sorry if I'm wrong on this.

(Score: 7/10)

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Content


The content of your role-playing-related forum is strangely only focused in one section called "Border". The difference is very high compared to the rest of the sections; next to it is the general discussion section and rules/news section. This should be your main concern as your forum continues to grow. You will have to ask the community and yourself maybe, why the posts are only focused in one place. Perhaps you need to add new area for members to roleplay in, add features, add events, remove unnecessary ones, and so on. Talk to the members about it since they are the players; see what they actually think about the site.

Grammar wise I don't see major mistakes in the posts or board descriptions. From the index page near the banner: "A full, thriving ninja world is set before you. Make friends, gain enemies, hunt the greatest Legendary Weapons, take part in the grand Epic Missions and save the world or destroy it!" You may want to change where you break the sentence into a new line. I think it would be best if you break it after each full stop so it doesn't seem strange. Also, I think "greatest" refer to single object so the usage of plural form in "weapons" is not very appropriate there.

(Score: 15/20)

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Navigation


Navigation is easy and clear enough for me. The "Log on" link is strange since what we usually have is "Log in", but with the quick log in box I don't think that is a problem. For the index it is pretty easy, but once you get inside the forums it gets a little more confusing. The navigation for sections you are in now is so small and placed between the large chat box and the content of the forum itself. You may want to increase the font size or make it stand out a bit more so visitors will not be confused of where to click if they want to return to a specific point. The copyright is located at the bottom of the side widget with proper content. You may want to add a little about privacy policy or something like that but not very necessary either.

(Score: 13/15)




Total Score 70/100



Final Remarks

Naruto RPG has been around for around two years. Usually for forums which have been going on for this long, it is harder for you to keep members interested in stories and keep on writing. That's where you should work on; gain attention of old members if possible but also recruit new interested members as well. Fixing the appearance is one way to help this. Encourage members participation in features or new additions for the site to make members feel like they are truly part of the community. All the best!


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