Large Forum Review
First Impressions
I have to admit I really like this Xenforo style, I have to say that because I chose the narrow version for my own site, I found the fluid style a little over powering, the notices in the banner is what really put me off, it tends to restrict the banner a little.
The colour scheme is good on the eye, and gives a professional feel. Typical Xenforo it is easy to use and find your way around very quickly
(Score: 13/15)
Appearance
The appearance of Aurora is at first sight very good, then you find some things start to niggle you a little bit, the size of the navtabs, the link above the banner, and the red secondary nav bar, it’s all a bit repetitive.
The forum layout itself is very good, the categories tend to flow well in importance and niche, it’s obvious a lot of work has gone into this already.
I like the fact your favicon ties in with the banner, and is the same style and colour.
For an admin forum, I would like to have seen a little more customisation, especially with the forum icons.
As I have said very pleasing on the eye, and easy to use.
(Score: 16/20)
Statistics and Activity
At first the member stats look good, but on closer inspection you have a lot of people joining, and not posting, or posting once then not coming back, however you do have a good core of members who are very active, for the age of the site the google PR and alexa rank are a little lower than I would expect, it suggests you need to work a little more on your SEO, and advertising.
(Score: 15/20)
Ratios
From the team list it would appear you are working on this on your own, I would suggest that the time is about right to find a moderator who is willing to share the load, now for disciplinary reasons, but for promotion and content.
(Score: 7/10)
Content
The content is typical of all forums in this genre/niche, which is a very competitive area, your forums have nothing unique about them and are common to the niche, in saying that the amount of discussion taking place is good, and the message count is quite well spread across the board.
(Score: 16/20)
Navigation
The Navigation on the site is typical Xenforo, simple and easy to follow, much easier I think than phpBB, apart from what has already been stated there is not a lot of improvement needed here.
(Score: 13/15)
Total Score
80/100
Final Remarks
A very neat professional looking forum, that just needs a few tweaks to make it get a higher mark. Not a lot more can be said, the clean lines hit you as soon as the page opens, it makes you want to look deeper and explore the site.
Some help is needed in the moderation side, and use your graphics team to provide some better forum icons.
The one big area you need to work on is SEO, and publicity, this alone will improve your traffic and membership take up. There is a gap in the market with the demise of a certain other Admin forum, this one could easily fill that gap.
Due to how well the site has been built and worked on there is really not a lot to criticise, excepting the tweaks mentioned, this is an example of how to build a site.
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