First Impressions - (Out of 20)
My first impressions for your website is that you have too much of a header before the forum itself. You have your logo that is advertising many brand names that stroked me as an Advertisement at first, until I recognized the website name in the middle. Your logo is real misleading for my first time visit to your website. After the misleading logo you have two sets of Google advertisements. It is unattractive for newcomers and would most likely turn many people away from registering at your forum. I understand your alternative is most likely a free forum host, but if you are going to keep the advertisements you need to simply create a new logo that just presents your company name. Another way around this would to make the text “console lounge” bold and bigger font then the rest of the name brands. Anything that would make your logo stand out before the brand names will resolve this problem. I will score you a 10 as your forum is good at first impressions, but it is extremely misleading.
(Scored 10/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Your forum does look indeed organized. Fix the logo issue I explained to you previously for the top half, or remove one of the sets of Google advertisements. Next comes your forums. Everything seems to come into place with your site layout. One issue I have is with your style you have chosen as the icons seem to be a little fake or whatnot. Perhaps another style would bring your site more alive and it would jump out as an outstanding website. Most people take one look at a website and know if they are going to join or not. So my advice to you is the just fix your logo along with the style. If you can not do graphics, then use a generator at:
www.CoolText.com ; They offer great logos that you can generate for free. Besides the logo and style, everything else seems to be well in place where they are. I will score you a 15 because your layout in general is nice, but your chose in logo and style are misleading and unattractive.
(Scored 15/20)
Forum Statistics - (Out of 20)
Your website/forum was created at the beginning of November and now it is January so it has been about 2 months from the creation of your forum. Your members have posted a total of 490 articles with 17 registered users. With only six members who seem to be fairly active. It is not bad but neither is it good. It is a fair amount of active members for 2 months from creation giving you a month lets say to set up the forum itself. Some forums kick off faster then others, so I will say you are doing fairly well, but it is a little to earlier to say your doing great or bad. I see that you have made over 300 articles out of the almost 500, so your doing your part of the activity. Now you need to get your members more involved into posting and contributing towards the community. It is not easy, but once your begin to get people more involved they will encourage even more members to become more involved. Next, you need to ask yourself what your website offers to the members. What would make your members join your website and contribute towards the community. After you ask yourself those questions, you can begin offering more and more to the members. I feel you have had a fair start, so just keep it up, keep at it! I will score you a 15 for having a decent amount of activity with your new forum community.
(Scored 15/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
You currently have 3 global moderators who aid you in moderating the community. That may seem a little much, but if you feel you will need three moderators for your community in the future, then that is good. You have plenty of staff members to patrol the forum. Now, you and one other moderator appear to be the only active staff members. You have 2 moderators who are inactive and inactive staff members makes your site look bad on your behalf. It is up to you to make sure your staff members are contributing to the community just as everyone else, except with a job to enforce the rules. Yes, you have enough staff members for your size of forum, but if they are inactive then it means those staff members are not contributing as they should and are not possibly moderating the community as they should. I’ll give you a 10 for having plenty of staff members, but lacking activity to moderate the community.
(Scored 10/20)
Spelling and Grammar - (Out of 20)
Your website has some grammar mistakes within the forums and their descriptions. I have found many misspelled words along with commas set off without spacing the components in between. (Jokes,Games,Riddles, Should be set off with spaces in between the commas)
Ex: Jokes, Games, Riddles. Many of those errors in the forum descriptions along with a couple of misspelled words such as the following:
Dicuss = discuss
Refferels = Referrals
Those are just a select few examples of some common errors in your grammar and spelling in your forum descriptions. For your members’ post, they are spelled correct with good grammar for the most part. Not an issue there. I will score you a 10 because having misspelled words makes your website look real unprofessional.
(Scored 10/20)
Total Score - (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: Work on getting packages from our package team here at forum promotion to boost some of your activity, as it should encourage other members to contribute and to become active. Next issue you need to work on is coming up with better graphics for your website. A new logo and style would fix those problems. Lastly, use a spell checker for your forums and descriptions at the least. If you do not have one there are many free spell checker websites out there; Search google for free spell checkers. Good work so far, make those changes, I advise you to come get another review in 30 days, and good luck! I wish you the best for you and your community!
What was most liked about the website/forums: I liked the use of sub forums that you have used to organize your website even furthermore.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: The logo and style with those icons.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Work on the Logo along with the style/style icons for a better non-misleading look. Then you would have me registered easily!
(Final Score 60/100)
