Pre-Launch Review
Site Name: Ouya Community
Site Type: Gaming Forum
Age: N/A (not opened)
Appearance
From the top, I think it is already quite inviting. I can tell that Ouya is related to gaming although I can't conclude further than that. I also think it'll be better if you put your forum's name, "Ouya Community" in the banner, with a slogan to better explain what your forum is about. You can use the banner image in small version for the favicon. The top navigation link for user panel and log-out link is almost invisible; maybe changing the color and raising the font size will help. Navigation bar is very simple; you can spark it up a bit by adding icons in front of each link as 'identity'. For the body of the forum, the category/forum icons, buttons, and topic icons are still standard, not customized to match the theme of your forum. It should be one other aspect you will need to work on to gain more attention. The footer is good and tidy.
Layout
I'm not very sure about the layout. I don't know how far the development of this Ouya console so probably there isn't much to discuss about it yet. To start with after its release, I think what you have provided in your current layout is good enough. You may want to merge the video section with general Ouya discussion section since discussions related to both can be done in either place, whereas videos related to news can be posted in news section, and so on. Start small, but give them content as much as you can. Try to elaborate more in writing category/forum descriptions so visitors and members know where to post what even though you have used common words for the section names.
Since your forum is related to game console, you may want to consider adding a category about games in general, where members can chat about various games, not only limited to games available for Ouya console. That way more may be interested in joining as you also cover general gaming topics.
First Impressions and Interest
First impression, it was rather vague. Upon the moment I clicked on your link and arrived at the forum, I couldn't really tell what your forum is about. Looking at the banner it must have been something related to games, but whether it is a console or a specific game, I wasn't able to tell. I need to venture to WikiPedia first to confirm it. I would advise to write a short and clean welcome box for visitors, to welcome them and explain briefly what they should expect from your forum, so it becomes easier for visitors to further decide whether they want to see more from you or not. Otherwise they may just turn back, not knowing what your forum has to offer.
Content
Content is also highly related to how far the development of the console is. You won't be able to put many on-topic topics and posts unless there are many information released from the developers. All I can say is that you need to keep yourself up-to-date with this console as much as you can so you can give news fast and keep members updated too. Meanwhile, related to my suggestion about adding general gaming category, if you decided to give it a try then you should probably focus there until there are stable information flow for Ouya console itself.
I noticed you are yet to set forum rules. That is important no matter what kind of forum it is to set clear the boundaries of the forum itself. I usually go check grammar from there too. From what I can see there is nothing wrong with your grammar, though I want to encourage you to write and elaborate more in your descriptions and posts to make it look slightly lengthy. For example, you can write like, "Stay updated with news about Ouya! This is where you can find latest news and information about your long-awaited console." as the description for Ouya News section instead of only "Ouya news". You may think lengthy descriptions are exhausting, but they can also show how serious you are in building the forums to give attention to small details such as descriptions. Don't you think so?
Words from the Reviewer
Ouya Community is not even opened, so I have nothing much to say. I've given you all I can think of. Mainly you will need to focus on how to keep your members interested until you can fill your on-topic sections with more information so that you will not end up empty. I hope you can find good solution for it, and hopefully I help you a bit to survive. Keep up the hard work, and all the best!
Star Rating
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