You've had the fantastic pleasure of having me review your forum, it's my first review here so I'll make it as good as I can for you buddy.
😉
Give me a little while. Shouldn't be more than an hour.<br /><br />-- 10 Sep 2010, 21:08 --<br /><br />
Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
The first thing I thought when viewing your site is - I've seen that theme a LOT before. Now it's not a bad skin but it's getting to become a little bit of a cliché, perhaps you should go for something a little more unique. You could try editing around the colours of the style a little, or just get an entirely new look altogether. Except for that though, your forum looks great! Nothing looks out of place, and the logo is great and really fits in with your style.
The only thing I don't like about the images on your forum is the user rank images, they look a little tacky. I think the width should match the width of the user info sections (e.g. posts, join date) and match the look a little too. At the moment they look a little blurry and less than excellent, which is what you want your site to be!
The welcome message was also really good to outline the benefits of signing up to new members - as a tip, I suggest you bold the important points in the welcome message to make them nice and obvious though. Your post icons look great in the theme also. Overall, your forum looks excellent and I can tell it's something you care about.
(Scored 18/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Your sections were actually really great and I could figure what each of them was about just by the short name - which is a great thing. All except the 'Out of Water' forum. I had to read the forum description to understand what you meant by that one, but it's not a massive issue.
I suggest you split up your forums a little bit when it comes to 'General Discussion.' I suggest creating a forum dedicated to news & announcements and another dedicated to user feedback & ideas. It's also a good idea to give your members a place to discuss anything they like. On new sites they like to do this a lot to get to know the community, so an entire category for Introductions, The Lounge and Forum Games could be good.
The way you have it is actually good though! There aren't too many forums and the ones that there are are split up nicely and evenly. Good job.
(Scored 17/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Considering your site has been around for a year now, your statistics aren't looking up I have to say. You have (roughly) on average 3 posts per day which just isn't good enough. Statistics is something you seriously need to work on, and general activity.
You need to advertise your site more than just at FP - join other swimming forums and leave a link to your site in your signature, advertise to targeted people - swimmers. Put posters up in your local swimming club or leave flyers advertising your site - tell people you meet when you're swimming. You need to get as many RELEVANT people as possible coming to your site. Some of this can be through search engines, but when you're starting out it's a good idea to do LOTS of word of mouth advertising to get that initial activity going.
This, for me, is Swim Forum's biggest weakness. That said, the site seems to be picking up a little now. You might want to mass email your members to see if you can get a few back too.
(Scored 12/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
You have one administrator and another global moderator. This is
perfect for a site of your size and activity. You don't need any more. The only problem is that this moderator was last online in May. That's not good enough, if your staff aren't active you can't expect your members to be.
Tell him he needs to be active to do the job he's been assigned. I also noticed he is advertising his own site - perhaps you could partner with it and get going some kind of joint thing to get more people to your forum. Anyway, the way things are going you probably can manage the site by yourself. When things pick up a little you might want to consider hiring a more active moderator.
(Scored 17/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I looked around your site, snooping for any grammar mistakes -- but nope, the only one I could find is that I think the "Coach's Corner" should be "Coaches' Corner" but hey we all find apostrophes difficult.
You and your co staff both have excellent grammar and professionalism so there's no problems here. If anything you might want to loosen your tone a little to attract a more friendly community vibe and get your community happy and talking!
(Scored 19/20)
Total Score - 83 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks:
What was most liked about the website/forums: The excellent overall look of the website looked very nice.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: The lack of activity
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? More members and activity going and if I was a swimmer I'd definitely join in the discussions.
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