Name of Site: Chat Socially Site Genre: General Site URL:http://chatsocially.com Type of Review ( Full/Quick ):Quick Opening Date: July 8th Additional Notes: Could Phio do it?
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Member Features
Thumbs up for your member features! I think it's one of the most complete features for members I've seen for general discussion forums. Some are rather general, like cash, bank, shop, and blog. But some are rather special, like social media page and custom profile design. In my opinion those are wonderful rewards for members. While browsing around I notice the shop is not working (I received a fatal error page while trying to load the page) and that a member seemed to have issues about cash robbery. Regarding the shop it's technical so I hope you can fix it as soon as you can. I'm not sure what kind of items you offered in the shop, but in case the shop wasn't very popular, perhaps you can consider the idea of selling gifts or decorations for user profiles. That can compliment the other features and hopefully make things merrier. About robbery, I happened to have an account there, and even my inbox was full of messages because of that. I personally think cash robbery is inappropriate, especially because you have offers in the forum which can be purchased with cash and the offers are quite big (e.g. to get a free hosting). In the rare chance that there is one or two members using this option, it would harm other members and may make them mad. I approve your decision to disable it, try to be more careful in the future about this.
Weaknesses:
Activity Variety
Here comes the important part. Every webmaster struggles with activity, so you should not be too hard on yourself about it, but gather your motivation to solve this problem. On a quick glance it seems that the forum is pretty active, replies are made pretty recent. I will go deeper from there, checking the posts and topics activity. Starting with posts, from almost four thousands posts you have at this moment, half of them are made by you as the lead administrator and two other members. That shows that you actually have a kind of 'core posters', but you do need to expand it more. Staff members are definitely expected to take part in this, unless the other position is indeed designed for only taking care of technical issues. I notice you are still seeking for a moderator, hopefully he/she can later assist you with this. One of the cause -- which also becomes the effect, I suppose; it's a circle and I don't know for sure where the start point is -- is probably because lack of new brains and new ideas. From your member list, you only gain one new member during November, and that was yesterday. I visited all your categories, and I found that some sections do not get updated with new topics since 3-4 months ago. Take for example "Adult Chat", "Teen Chat", and boards under "Entertainment" category in general. That makes me wonder if the community is interested in such category or not. If you feel that it's too hard to make topics there, you can always condense it. You are better small but focused and active than huge but empty.
Perhaps you may also want to pump members' interest by holding special events or contests. You did run a posting contest and cash giveaway previously. I'm not thinking of something so grand; what do you think of a regular contest of best designed profile, or "CS Lightbulb of the Month" for members who help to start new threads or make many constructive posts at the forum? Rewards can be virtual cash which can be spent on your shop and other offers you have.
I think you have strong features as I've mentioned above, now you need to exploit those features to the maximum to keep members interested.
Simplistic Design
While it is not a very serious weakness, I do feel the design can be improved more to be interesting. General discussion forums tend to use lovely designs to invite members in because there is quite a competition in the niche. Your current theme is very simple and can be said that it's rather plain. The color is generally white. Not many color contrast is made except with the color of user groups. Even your forum banner is very simple and small. I remember you used a different font for the banner previously which looked more modified than the current one, I wonder why you changed it to a simpler font. I would suggest to change the theme and banner if possible; if not, you can try to explore your theme more. Perhaps adding icons on forum descriptions, change the category/forum icons as you are still using the default phpBB icon, and replace your banner with something grand. Holiday season is around, and it's a perfect reason to change the banner. And while you're at it, getting your forum a favicon will also help to color things up. I'm afraid the current setting leaves the impression of being boring to some guests.
I also want to touch the topic of your home page/portal. I personally think it is a wonderful idea, but I see that it is not used a lot, or lacks purpose in this case. When I first clicked the link, I was redirected right away to the forum index, not the home page. The content of the home page itself does not stand out, other than last topics updated and perhaps a 'contact us' box. If you still want to carry on the content of the home page, I think it's still appropriate to put those at the forum index, at the top of the category/forum list. Of course you will have to cut some parts like the statistics, richest users, and latest members as they can also be found on the footer of the forum, but you get the general idea. You can also add advertisement there, or maybe some links to fun things happening around. A Thanksgiving wishes thread or an open recruitment for a moderator are the examples.
Final Remarks:
I hope you don't feel discouraged that I only write one strength combined with two weaknesses. I feel that the strength you have already is huge, and you also seem to have loyal friend as an administrator. Running a general discussion forum is not an easy task as you need to keep members interested in many ways. Talk to your fellow team, ask the community what they want, brainstorm ideas, and visit other successful websites to get inspiration. I wish you good luck with the forum!
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