Peak Forums
Review by Kino
First Impressions
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My first impressions are excellent. Everything seems to be in its right place, the theme is simple yet nice, the banner area is great, and overall it's a real nice site.
I think the "Staff Online" area is a hit or miss with me. I know that at the bottom it shows who is on, but sometimes staffers go invisible. Publicly displaying which staff is on could potentially be hazardous in the future once you get more popular. This could be something hackers and harmful users might use towards their advantage to spam your site, try and get into ACP, or any of the above. That's just one thing I would be aware of. I mean from a user perspective it is great because if users have an issue they know it will be resolved quick. One question, if the staff member chooses to be invisible, are they still displayed there? If all staffers are invisible that might be a section you can get rid of as a whole, especially if the admins are invisible.
Just some thoughts.
Overall, first impressions are great.
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Good
Design Quality
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For a MyBB theme, I'm thoroughly impressed. Everything seems very "modern" and sleek. I'm impressed with the way everything is laid out and the color scheme. For a general discussion forum, I am satisfied with the colors you have chosen. I love the bright almost neon blue. Great choice.
I mentioned the Staff Online earlier so that's covered. It might be a coding issue, but something that should be fixed because a lot of people do things
My only problem is that when I minimize the site on the right or left hand side, things are overlapping. I'm using Google Chrome and your whole section on the right, Staff Online, Board Stats, Recent Threads, etc. are overlapping areas aren't overly attractive.
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Good
Site Statistics
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I'm assuming your site began early August of this year? I'm just guessing by your News section.
I'm okay with the stats you have for being open 2 months. 3,500 posts is totally respectable. That's about 42 posts a user. It's not a horrible stat.
So it looks like the majority of your posts are in "The Lounge." That's okay, I'm happy when I click that that there are only 300 posts in Forum Games. I was nervous that there would be a ton of posts there. So overall, not bad. I would start focusing on developing your other sections to boost post count and activity by users. The more enthralling your content, the better off you are as the owner.
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Good
Originality
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So this will probably be the worst category. I feel like sometimes when people just want to open a website they automatically go to "Oh let's open a general discussion forum. It will get a ton of users."
I feel like that isn't the case anymore. It's really difficult to get members because there are so many genres of this forum around. Nothing personal against you, just how it is.
The only different thing I see on your site compared to others is the "Adult Cafe." I don't know what's in there, but that would help me if joining because I do like mature conversations sometimes. So nicely done there.
Overall, here I would say average. A lot of people open these kinds of forums and unfortunately they aren't a success.
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Poor
Site Structure
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I think your site is structured well. There isn't much to talk about here. Your sections and forums are very clear, that way everyone knows what you mean. So nice work there.
I see "Groups & Upgrades." Don't see anything about upgrades though. Is that a members only feature? I would maybe look into changing the category name if that is not the case.
Overall, again not much to comment on. It's structured well.
PS Just one question - why does one have to be an upgraded member to have a signature?
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Good
Spelling & Professionalism
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Overall, I am happy with the way your spelling is. No comment here other than excellent.
Your staff seems respectful to other users and it looks like there is quite a good atmosphere between users and staff.
Please don't mind this section being short - I'm overly impressed with all of this. Your best attribute at best.
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Excellent
Final Remarks
So I think you are off to a good start. Your a general discussion forum, which is pretty self explanatory. I don't need to remind you how to base your content or any of that. Your staff is friendly, active, and professional. I would recommend using and leading them to create better content on the site for regular users. Content is very important in a general discussion forum and has to be current and fast paced. Otherwise you don't have a shot. I would just work on the couple of things I mentioned, not many things though. Overall, I'm impressed with your site, I just see so many general discussion forums and yours really doesn't stand out to me one bit compared to others.
Biggest like about the website?: Banner
Biggest dislike about the website?: Lack of originality
What could I do to make you (the Reviewer) join my website?: Create something utterly unique that no one else has.
Your Score
