Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
My first impression of your forum was a very good one. As soon as the page loaded, I noticed how bright and vibrant your forum is. On closer inspection of your site, I am still very pleased with the appearance. For starters, Your logo is plain, but the text is still readable. Next to your logo, or should I say in it, is your login box. I like how the opacity of the box is lowered, partly revealing the background behind it. The curved box up the top looks very effective as well, and overall that box fits in well where it is. Your menu looks very nice in contrast to the blues of the banner and most of the forum. I like the gloss that is applied to it, and I love how each link is separated by what looks to be a little indent, which defines the menu a lot more. However, the hover image that is on your menu, looks a bit pixelated around the edges. If that was fixed up, it would look much more smooth.
Under your menu, you have a wide box that has "Planet Clans" inside of it. This probably isn't such a big deal, but the text is a bit hard to read, maybe a white or light grey would make it easier to read. I like your guest box that is under that box, straight away it tells me what benefits I have when I join, and could really help convince potential members to join.
I like your category headers that you have. The fit in well against the grey background, and alongside the darkish blue underneath and the light grey/white above. I like how you have the forum name, and then the arrow pointing to the forum description. Now, those little black to blue boxes underneath look, well, a bit out of place. Maybe a dark blue to blue gradient would be much better, as it would fit in much better with the theme. Your new/old post icons are very cool, they directly relate to your topic, and like I have said many a time before, they look great with your theme.
Your layout down the bottom looks very good, with the statistics on one side and the affiliates on the other. It is different from the usual rows and rows of information, and I personally think it looks much better.
(19 /20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Lets see, the layout of your forums. Where they are now, well, to be honest, is pretty good. A few little changes could be made though. For starters, merging "Help and Support" and "Feedback and Suggestions" would probably be a good idea, as it is easier to have feedback and any questions the users may have in the same forum. Another thing, you have an "Affiliate Swap" section in your clan section, I think it would be much better maybe as even just a global announcement, that way the index page is smaller, and the users are reminded they can affiliate just about anywhere they go. Swapping it with "Tournaments" might be a good idea, as Tournaments would most likely relate directly to the clans participating in them, thus being in the Clans category. Also, I think you could expand on your "Gaming" forum. Really, your forum is about people that play games, yet you have more about off topic talk than you do about gaming. You could even make it a whole category if it is necessary.
(17 /20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Lets break down the stats:
Days since opening: roughly 92
Posts: 1025
Members: 216
Posts per day: about 11
Members per day: about 2.3
Posts per member: about 4.75
Seeing as you are a clan forum, these sorts of stats can come along. Lets start off with members, well, you have 216, that is a very large amount of members to have with a post count that low. Many forums average around 1 member to every 10 posts, yours is under 5. Also, your members per day is very high. This could be expected, as you might recieve a lot of members who come just to look for a clan. To be honest, your posts per day are low. Being in such a wide topic, it could be a lot higher, but on the other hand, it is very competitive, with the amount of gaming and clan forums popping up here and there. Your posts per member could be a lot higher, give members a reason to post, whether it be contests, incentives etc. as it seems they just register and leave.
(16 /20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
OK, here are your moderation stats:
Admins: 3
Moderators: 2
Total: 5
Staff:Member ratio: roughly 1:43
Staff
😛ost ratio: 1:205
To start off with, I would like to say that you have around the right amount of staff. But on in saying that, I think aiming for a ratio of around 1:50 would be much better for a smaller forum. I noticed 1 Admin had a post count of 1, really, I think they should be let go. They dont really show anything for the forum, they seem like one of those people who register and leave. If you let them go, your staff:member ratio would go up to about 1:54 , which I think would be much better.
(19 /20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
Just quickly browsing through the forum, I did notice a couple of mistakes, here are some of them:
"
All our updates will be posted here for you to keep up to date with what's happening."
That sounds a bit jumbled up, maybe have it like this:
"
All updates will be posted here, make sure to check regularly to keep up to date."
Something like that sounds a bit better in my opinion.
"
Help us to improve the forums by giving us feedback (whether good or bad)."
Should be:
"
Help us improve the forums, by providing us with feedback (whether it be good or bad)."
Again, a few words here and there are removed and deleted.
"
Looking to join a clan? Need someone to laugh at or shout to on TS/Ventrilo? Post where you live and what your ping is in servers."
Really should be:
"
Looking to join a clan? Need someone to laugh at or shout at on TS/Ventrilo? Post with where you live, and generally what your ping is"
(18 /20)
Total Score - 89 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks:
Your skin looks great
What was most liked about the website/forums:
The skin
What was disliked most about the website/forums:
The layout is a bit muddled up, and some staff are very inactive.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website?
I game, but I am not really interested in clans that much anymore, sorry
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