Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
I have to admit, I get a little confused when I first visit your site, not about what your forum is all about, that I can clearly see. What confuses me is the colour scheme. You have chosen a blue colour scheme for the menu bar at the top and the actual board. I see nothing wrong with this, but I do find it a little boring. A lot of forums have backgrounds with diagonal stripes, as do they have a colour scheme of blue. I would suggest looking into choosing a different colour scheme. It is your banner that strikes me as odd however, you suddenly have a very grey colour scheme running with hints of a darkish green and gold. I actually really like the green and gold colours you are using, they are slightly more unusual, but I don't like the grey. What I would love to see is a custom scheme that works with these greys and golds. Also you have a good quality header, let it show in that whole open space! Fill the gap between the logo and the login box. The grey background really doesn't work either, even though I can see you have made an attempt to tie in the grey with the blue, the colours are just too different.
When I view your forum in chrome the forum is a little out of line with the top menu bar, I don't know if this is only my browser, but it is a little off putting. I would suggest looking at your coding to see what causes this move of the main content.
Under the header there is a darker grey bar that just says Paid to Post forum! My first thought when looking at it was, What is that doing there?, it serves no real purpose and I would suggest removing it. It would also make the forum more a part of the header and the rest of the design.
I would like to say again that I really like your header and the colours, the only little thing I would like to poke at here is the favicon is coins and the header contains notes. Maybe match these up? It would make the site look a little more professional.
Another small thing I would like to suggest is looking for new New, Read and Locked icons for the main forum, the ones now are pretty simple and don't resemble your forum in any way.
The stars mod you are using on your posts isn't working properly, it has a blue background and seems to be able to pull up more than 5 stars even though 5 stars is the max, I would suggest reinstalling that mod.
Your header isn't clickable! I usually navigate a forum by clicking the header to return to the index, I would suggest making the header into a home link.
(Score: 11/20)
Site Layout
You currently have 2 sections. The first section "Pay to Post" seems to be an information section for the forum. It contains 4 categories, the news and announcements section is nearly a standard for forums and I see no problems with it. The feedback section seems very popular, so I would keep it seperate. However the next section has me wondering, I can understand why you want the "Pay to post information" category to be seperate but I feel that the title is a little misleading. I would suggest changing the name to "Pay out requests". The information for pay to post should go in the news and announcements category. The last category, New member introductions, I always like to see on a site. Due to this site being a PTP I would like to ask if this is a no posts counted section, if it is then I approve, otherwise I would suggest making it so.
In the General section you really have a bit of everything, which is nice to see. It gives your members a wide selection of things to discuss. However they are mostly filled with posts and not threads. For this reason I would like to suggest cutting down the categories a little for now. I would suggest merging Webmaster into Computers and I really don't feel that Operating Systems needs its own sub-forum. I would also like to see Gadgets added to computers. Computers could change name to Electronics and Computing. These are only changes suggested till you have more threads.
I also don't understand why Debates is under Off-topic if no post count is added. I feel debates is a completely acceptable post topic, this is often where you will get longer, more high quality posts. I would love to see the debates section as a larger part of the forum.
I am not a great fan of the shoutbox. Especially due to the discussion I see in it when I visit your site. It seems to be only used to take up matters that should be discussed via PM or in a thread in the feedback suggestion. I would suggest removing it, but it is your own choice as an admin. It is also being used to advertise another PTP forum?
(Scored 16/20)
Statistics and Activity
Spazmatic said:
Date Forum Opened: 7/27/11
Our members have made a total of 1,170 posts in 214 threads.
We currently have 61 members registered.
The most users online at one time was 21 on Yesterday at 12:23 PM
3 Days ago, wow. However, it is what I expect for a PTP forum. 5,4 posts average per thread. Yet when looking at your categories I see high post counts and low thread counts. I really feel that you need to get more threads going. Threads with huge post counts usually indicates spam to me.
You have good statistics, it is expected for a PTP forum but I can't mark you down for that. You have done well here, I hope this isn't just a new forum flux and that your forum continues to grow at this rate.
(Scored 19/20)
Staff Moderation
You have 1 moderator and 1 admin. I don't feel the staff are keeping on top of the forum too well. I see spam and off-topic posts in several forums I visit, which is especially important for you to avoid with a PTP forum. Both staff members have good post counts which shows activity.
I would suggest looking for a couple more moderators already, they aren't need quite yet but if your forum continues to grow at the same pace they will be needed very soon. Also, you are going to need staff that can be unusually active and that have good experience dealing with members. This is the sort of forum where conflicts easily occur and you are going to need very calm, level-headed staff.
(Scored 9/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
You professionalism isn't very good. As an admin when I see you discussing someone else's PTP forum in the shoutbox as if it was completely ok that they are advertising their site on yours, especially as it has the same niche. I can't even understand how this is accepted. All round your forum isn't very professional, and this is the type of forum I expect a lot of professionalism from. To be honest, the whole forum looks like a bit of a rush job. The category descriptions are short and badly written, with many grammatical errors. I would suggest rewriting them all.
New and Announcements Should maybe be News and Announcements?
Ask questions about the site, and give feedback and suggestions. Feel free to ask questions about the site, give feedback or suggestions (Just an example of a way to better the descriptions)
(Scored 4/20)
Total Score - 59/100
Final Remarks
To me, it feels like the forums opening was slightly rushed. It would probably of needed a day or two more to double check things. There are many grammatical mistakes that should have been spotted. I don't feel that the owner has yet realised what is needed to run a forum of this niche, activity and scrutiny of a high level is needed.
Strong Points
Statistics and Activity
Header
Things to Improve
Staff moderation and professionalism
Forum Design
Shoutbox
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