Please provide your opinions on RPG lounge http://rpglounge.forumotion.com/
Opinions of rpg lounge?
- Thread starter Anorak
- Start date
You have done really well activity wise, but I feel your forum is a bit too cluttered. There are too many boards in my opinion, I would make some of them sub forums, Identify the ones with very little posts and make them sub forums, for example I see the Help board and game previews board. I also noticed that two of your boards, are very similar, and you could merge them together, they are General rpg games and roleplay talk.
When I look at your forum, it just looks too broad of a forum, you cover every single type of role playing, maybe you should just focus on two or three at the moment and then branch out.
If you haven't already check out the review team here on fp and ask them to review your forum, it is worth the fp cash.
When I look at your forum, it just looks too broad of a forum, you cover every single type of role playing, maybe you should just focus on two or three at the moment and then branch out.
If you haven't already check out the review team here on fp and ask them to review your forum, it is worth the fp cash.
Sweet! An RP forum. I can work with this ^^
Skin – I like it. The textures, the Christmas decorations—everything looks great. The only concern is that I find it difficult to read the green username text on the forum. Given that the usergroup is called “Christmas,” I will guess it’s only temporary, but if you’re looking for something long term, use a different color or a different shade.
Rules – Not posting a wall of text is a smart move; I can tell you appreciate brevity. However, the current format isn’t much better. The centered bullet points are almost as hard to read, and then you repeat the rules twice—the first time to state them and the second time to give an explanation. You want to write concisely and clearly. Write the rules once and only once; explain them with a couple of sentences only if needed. You don’t need both “Be nice” and “Be respectful” rules . . . those are the same thing, and if someone is going to be a jerk, chances are he isn’t going to be abiding by the rules anyhow. And then you repeat the definition for signature length, the first time with objective description and the next time much more subjective.
And speaking of subjective, your mods have different standards of what’s appropriate? That does not strike me as professional. Your site as a whole needs to have one standard. Yes, each mod is an individual and might have slightly different interpretations, but it’s bound to create ill will and favoritism (or great dislike) between people if one mod treats members one way and another turns around and treats them another way.
Before I leave the topic of rules, here’s an example of a possible rules layout:
General Layout – You have the member introductions right at the top of the board there where people can access them easily. This is good; having an intro section shows members that you respect and appreciate their arrival into the community. The location makes it convenient for them.
The number of forums appears appropriate and almost everyone has posts within the last couple of days. It looks like a couple of forums aren’t quite as active as others, and it would be nice to get more activity in them, but you’re doing fine overall. And congratulations on the 10,000 posts!
Other Things – I wanted to comment on it because it seems great: I love the idea of the weekend roleplay. (Though the dates as posted on the calendar are off.) The idea of spontaneous roleplay sounds fantastic. And this is random, but good for you for acknowledging that there was an issue in the community that needed to be fixed (re: friendliness in the cbox). The announcement was straightforward, didn’t call anyone out, and read in a respectful manner.
Overall – My opinion of the overall structure of this site is that you have a lot of things going for you. Active community, decent skin, straightforward set up. But there are some “barriers to entry” on your site as well, and I talked about them previously. The layout of the rules is important because new people head straight to the rules and they need to be able to read them efficiently. The current set up is not efficient. But the biggest problem I see on the site isn’t the format of the rules—it’s that one shady statement in which you tell members that the moderators have different opinions on what is acceptable. This one thing needs to be addressed immediately for the sake of your site. You might not have issues now, but you will in the future.
Before you laugh it off or go to the rules to delete it, at least hear me out: The administrator needs to set the tone for the site, and having moderators who can pick and choose what they allow will only hurt your site in the long run. Talk to your moderators (and potentially your members, too) to see what everyone as a whole wants to be acceptable in your community. Opening up communication between moderators to work together will benefit your site. Having members recognize your moderators as “Oh, that’s the mean one” and “That one is nice—go to that one with any questions” isn’t appropriate for any site, and particularly not for a forum community. I have seen many sites collapse because of lack of communication.
----
Alright, there’s the review. I hope it helped. Good luck on your site!
Skin – I like it. The textures, the Christmas decorations—everything looks great. The only concern is that I find it difficult to read the green username text on the forum. Given that the usergroup is called “Christmas,” I will guess it’s only temporary, but if you’re looking for something long term, use a different color or a different shade.
Rules – Not posting a wall of text is a smart move; I can tell you appreciate brevity. However, the current format isn’t much better. The centered bullet points are almost as hard to read, and then you repeat the rules twice—the first time to state them and the second time to give an explanation. You want to write concisely and clearly. Write the rules once and only once; explain them with a couple of sentences only if needed. You don’t need both “Be nice” and “Be respectful” rules . . . those are the same thing, and if someone is going to be a jerk, chances are he isn’t going to be abiding by the rules anyhow. And then you repeat the definition for signature length, the first time with objective description and the next time much more subjective.
And speaking of subjective, your mods have different standards of what’s appropriate? That does not strike me as professional. Your site as a whole needs to have one standard. Yes, each mod is an individual and might have slightly different interpretations, but it’s bound to create ill will and favoritism (or great dislike) between people if one mod treats members one way and another turns around and treats them another way.
Before I leave the topic of rules, here’s an example of a possible rules layout:
- No Spamming.
No Extreme Cursing. Words like “damn” and “hell” are acceptable, but more serious swear words are not. Out of respect for others, please do not be crude.
Respect Others. Show respect to everyone, not just staff! We want people getting along, and we don't like it when people are pointlessly rude to others.
Etc.
General Layout – You have the member introductions right at the top of the board there where people can access them easily. This is good; having an intro section shows members that you respect and appreciate their arrival into the community. The location makes it convenient for them.
The number of forums appears appropriate and almost everyone has posts within the last couple of days. It looks like a couple of forums aren’t quite as active as others, and it would be nice to get more activity in them, but you’re doing fine overall. And congratulations on the 10,000 posts!
Other Things – I wanted to comment on it because it seems great: I love the idea of the weekend roleplay. (Though the dates as posted on the calendar are off.) The idea of spontaneous roleplay sounds fantastic. And this is random, but good for you for acknowledging that there was an issue in the community that needed to be fixed (re: friendliness in the cbox). The announcement was straightforward, didn’t call anyone out, and read in a respectful manner.
Overall – My opinion of the overall structure of this site is that you have a lot of things going for you. Active community, decent skin, straightforward set up. But there are some “barriers to entry” on your site as well, and I talked about them previously. The layout of the rules is important because new people head straight to the rules and they need to be able to read them efficiently. The current set up is not efficient. But the biggest problem I see on the site isn’t the format of the rules—it’s that one shady statement in which you tell members that the moderators have different opinions on what is acceptable. This one thing needs to be addressed immediately for the sake of your site. You might not have issues now, but you will in the future.
Before you laugh it off or go to the rules to delete it, at least hear me out: The administrator needs to set the tone for the site, and having moderators who can pick and choose what they allow will only hurt your site in the long run. Talk to your moderators (and potentially your members, too) to see what everyone as a whole wants to be acceptable in your community. Opening up communication between moderators to work together will benefit your site. Having members recognize your moderators as “Oh, that’s the mean one” and “That one is nice—go to that one with any questions” isn’t appropriate for any site, and particularly not for a forum community. I have seen many sites collapse because of lack of communication.
----
Alright, there’s the review. I hope it helped. Good luck on your site!
First Impressions
Tis the season to be jolly falalala….oh, the rest of the board is dark. The Christmas lights are a cute addition for the holiday spirit, even though I’ll talk about the theme later. The logo is iffy, the images really look photoshopped in and they’re on a dark background. Doesn’t work to well. Name wise, I think RPG Lounge is a good name! The nav bar fits in with theme, but it doesn’t seem too original, and does not match the holiday kind of atmosphere you want. For me, one button is messed up as well.
Mark: 6/20
Forum Design and Graphics
Besides the logo, your forum honestly doesn’t have many graphics that are easily visible. As I said, the logo’s colours just don’t work. The second graphic I see is in fact an ad. I hate ads, especially in a spot like where yours is. I know it costs money to remove it, but it is worth it, trust me. I’m sure many members and would be members dislike it. The other graphics that show the status of each forum category are unoriginal, although they mix with the theme well. Theme wise, it does not seem like a custom theme, just a typical dark theme. Although the theme is well done, a lot of people use this theme, so I ask you, how shall you stay original?
Mark: 7/40
Activity and Content
I have to say, when I look at the “who was last online” list, your forum seems pretty active. Your forum has a nice 11,000 posts. However, one of the admins has about 4,000 posts which is about 35% of all your posts! That’s crazy, and means that your forum honestly isn’t too active. The other admin only has 500, but together you make roughly 40% of all the posts! I assume with the other staff that the post count of you guys would be about 60% of all the posts! Work on getting other members active, don’t over-post when your forum isn’t super active. Your forum has 181 members which is a decent number considering you’re using a free forum host. Considering the circumstances, your member count is actually pretty nice!
Mark: 19/40
Overall Comments
Overall this isn’t the best review I’ve given a forum, but I can tell that you put a lot of effort in to be a good forum! With a few changes I could see you more active, and surely an even more fun community! Best of luck.
Overall Mark: 32/100
Tis the season to be jolly falalala….oh, the rest of the board is dark. The Christmas lights are a cute addition for the holiday spirit, even though I’ll talk about the theme later. The logo is iffy, the images really look photoshopped in and they’re on a dark background. Doesn’t work to well. Name wise, I think RPG Lounge is a good name! The nav bar fits in with theme, but it doesn’t seem too original, and does not match the holiday kind of atmosphere you want. For me, one button is messed up as well.
Mark: 6/20
Forum Design and Graphics
Besides the logo, your forum honestly doesn’t have many graphics that are easily visible. As I said, the logo’s colours just don’t work. The second graphic I see is in fact an ad. I hate ads, especially in a spot like where yours is. I know it costs money to remove it, but it is worth it, trust me. I’m sure many members and would be members dislike it. The other graphics that show the status of each forum category are unoriginal, although they mix with the theme well. Theme wise, it does not seem like a custom theme, just a typical dark theme. Although the theme is well done, a lot of people use this theme, so I ask you, how shall you stay original?
Mark: 7/40
Activity and Content
I have to say, when I look at the “who was last online” list, your forum seems pretty active. Your forum has a nice 11,000 posts. However, one of the admins has about 4,000 posts which is about 35% of all your posts! That’s crazy, and means that your forum honestly isn’t too active. The other admin only has 500, but together you make roughly 40% of all the posts! I assume with the other staff that the post count of you guys would be about 60% of all the posts! Work on getting other members active, don’t over-post when your forum isn’t super active. Your forum has 181 members which is a decent number considering you’re using a free forum host. Considering the circumstances, your member count is actually pretty nice!
Mark: 19/40
Overall Comments
Overall this isn’t the best review I’ve given a forum, but I can tell that you put a lot of effort in to be a good forum! With a few changes I could see you more active, and surely an even more fun community! Best of luck.
Overall Mark: 32/100
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