Chillerr
Review by Sinon
First Impressions
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I'm a little bit disappointed by my first impression. There are a few suggestions I have for improving the theme, which I'll cover under the design quality section. Overall, though, my first impression wasn't that Chillerr stands out above others forums, but rather than the theme is pretty plain and needs some work. After seeing the design, I next scrolled down to the statistics. They are very good! In my opinion, this is one of your forum's greatest selling points, and is a great benefit from the standpoint of a first impression.
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Poor
Design Quality
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I noticed you recently changed your style to a new one. While your old one wasn't perfect, I think the design really resonated with your branding (cold, chillerr), but your current one doesn't do that so much. There's nothing about the purple hues which makes me think of the cold, nor is there anything that really stands out about the design. It doesn't really make a "statement," or have an overall theme behind it, you know what I mean?
Anyway, on to the specifics of the design: I do not like how the background is repeated in the header, the category header, and also the lower menu. Here's what I'm talking about.
There isn't really a central point of focus. Each of the backgrounds is pretty much the same, having the same colors, the same size, and standing out equally as much. For that reason, the style has a "bland," "uninteresting," and "generic" quality to it.
I think you really need to focus on adding some interest to the design. Make some parts of it stand out, to dra the eye to them, and make the viewer say "wow" to themselves. The logo is particularly lacking in this regard: right now it's just text, rather than a fancy graphic which says "this is what Chiller is about."
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Poor
Site Statistics
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Overall, your site statistics are very good, particularly for a forum as young as yours. To me, one of the most important factors is distribution: are posts equally distributing among sections, making each one look valuable and active. For the most part, the answer is yes, but it also appears that some sections are not really pulling their weight. Artist Ally does not have very many posts in it, compared to the others in its category. It may be a good idea to consider a merge, or maybe making it a subforum.
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Good
Spelling & Professionalism
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I found a few mistakes here and there. Here are the corrections.
All news regarding Chillerr will be here
I recommend changing this to "will be placed here." or "will be posted here."
Want to show off your art/graphics work? You can share your graphics/ art work here and chat about general art discussions with fellow Chillerr users!
I recommend avoiding "art/graphics," and using a slash similarly. "And" is usually clearer and less ambiguous.
Are you a fan of movies or television shows? Come over to The Big Screen and you can chat about any trending latest movie or television show!
I recommend changing "and you can" to simply "to."
Generally, though, the spelling is pretty good.
One thing I noticed was that, while I was reviewing Chillerr, there was a good amount of spam which was about an hour old. One of your staff members was online three minutes after the spam attack began, but I guess didn't notice anything. It was 6 hours and 9 hours since your two other staff members had been online, so the hopes of the spam being removed quick do not seem too good at the moment. I recommend hiring more staff members, as you seem to need them, even if solely for security reasons.
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Good
Originality
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Your site is in a pretty popular niche, but you don't need me to tell you that. I do like that you have a very good and original name. Also, your branding, "take a chill pill," is very solid and well done. I recommend improving your theme to be higher quality and more unique, to make your site stand out above the other general forums out there.
Overall, you aren't doing anything new with Chillerr, but you are doing a very good job of branding an old and well-recognized niche. Well done!
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Good
Site Structure
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Overall, your site is well structured. The flow is logical (Meta, then general, then entertainment) and you do a good job of putting the more popular forums first.
I have a few recommendations, though. First of all, some of the names are pretty ambiguous. "Thought Bubbles," for example, requires you to read half way through the description to see what the section is about. Some sections also don't really have a clear purpose to me, either, such as "Chilling Lifestyles." I always felt like Lifestyle is more of a buzz word than anything else, and the description doesn't really clear it up for me. I noticed that there are threads in there about smoking versus not smoking, etc, but I'm not sure these types of discussion really show much room for expansion. I'd recommend emphasizing the "General life discussions can also be posted within this forum" aspect in both the name and description.
Finally, some of the names seem a bit off to me, namely "Gaming Gaia" and "Sports Saga." I see where you re coming from, and I like the idea of having creative names, but these choices just seem a bit weird to me. The alliteration just feels a little bit forced, in my opinion.
Overall, your structure is very good, though. Good job!
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Good
Final Remarks
Chillerr is a good website with great potential. You have awesome statistics and good branding. What you need is a better design, most importantly, and a few minor fixes here and there. Good job, and good luck!
Your Score
