Pre-Launch Review
Site Name: Anon's Converse Message Board
Site Type: Forum
Age: 19 days old
Appearance
When I first clicked the link to get to your site, I was pleasantly surprised. You have a very nice theme which you’re using and the colours work very well together. The theme will defiantly interest guests into joining, because the site does look very nice.
I do have one suggestion, for something which was bugging me while using your site. I would suggest you make a gap above your advertisement, because it is looking a bit too close to the nav-bar above it. You can do this by just placing a <br> above the advertisement, which will create a small gap above the advertisement, making your site look a bit better for users.
I would also personally recommend that you display the Posts and Threads number for each board without the user having to hover over the board to see the numbers. It allows users to quickly see which boards have more discussion going on inside of them, instead of having to hover over each board.
Layout
First off your board titles and descriptions are fairly good. There is one small improvement you could make to make your site “flow” a bit more. I would suggest you put the “Introduction and Allegro” board below the “About the Boards” forum and in the same category, to make things flow a bit more. Having categories with just one board in them can sometimes look a little odd and you will find that the About and Introductions boards regularly are in the same category on many forums around the web.
First Impressions and Interest
As I noted above in the Appearance apart of this pre-review, I do like the theme you have chosen for your forum. I do feel as though the forum is quite wide though. I personally prefer forums which are a bit thinner and don’t cover the whole of my screen (width ways). This is just my personal opinion though and it may be something which you like.
I would also recommend you get a domain name for your site which isn’t a free one. It will make your site seem more professional and make it not seem so temporary. Many sites which have .tk’s tend to not last very long, because it feels as though the owner doesn’t believe in the forum enough to invest $10 in a domain. If you don’t have the money to buy a domain, I would suggest you get a domain name using $FP (
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=57775) and you can earn that FP by posting and doing exchanges (
viewforum.php?f=84).
I do quite like forums which have to do with debating and general “chit chat”, but you are in a hard niche to compete in. This is because most forums, no matter what the niche will have a general discussion forum and sometimes a debating board. I would recommend you do something really good which grasps my attention and makes me want to join up and join in with the discussion.
Content
Your content looks great and you do have some good and interesting threads in your boards. Luckily because your forum doesn’t have a truck load of boards your site doesn’t look empty with boards with only a couple of posts in them.
One quick thing I would suggest is making the rules easier! I don’t mean re-writing them, I mean that having 4 posts which seem to be rules/agreements seems like a lot. I would suggest keeping it to a minimum and merging them all into one thread, as you are more likely to get people to read the rules if it’s just one thread, not four.
I would suggest you keep trying to make 5+ threads a day so you generate more discussion and have more things for your members to talk about.
Words from the Reviewer
You have a good new forum which will be interesting to watch grow. As you get more and more posts I would suggest bringing in new boards and continue making great threads.
After reading your review, please click here to rate your review.
