Full Review by Twisted Fairytale
First Impressions & Appearance – (17 out of 20)
At first glance, FPS Forum looks very professional. The theme is smooth and the colors are "easy on the eyes." I really enjoy the background, and how you can kind of see some different aspects of popular FPS games through the main content. For instance, I can pick out a mech from Titanfall and a few weapons from other games. It's unique and very fitting!
Sidebars are normally not my thing, but I seem to not mind how FPS Forum uses the sidebar to its advantage. It's non-invasive and generally has good information on it. It's unique how they have used the "If you're reading this advertising works!" ad. I like it, but I'm not sure how adequate the advertising space is. Most advertisers look for much larger spaces to place their ads, and having a little space such as the one FPS Forum gives may not attract many advertisers.
There isn't much I can say about a good appearance and first impression other than suggest a few things. First, think about finding some new forum icons. It's an FPS Forum, right? Well, at the moment, we have letter envelopes as the forum icons. In my opinion, it would be much cooler and fitting to make those pistols or clips; perhaps a target reticule. I think it would be great for the forum's appearance!
I know this was a very short section, but there wasn't much to say about the appearance other than it's very sufficient. The colors are smooth and match. There is very little annoying contrast. Like any forum, there are small aspects (such as the forum images) that could be improved; but other than that, it's one of the nicer forums I've seen!
Site Layout – (17 out of 20)
Navigating FPS Forum is fairly simple, mostly because there isn't much other than the index of forums. While searching through the site though, I did attempt to click the "Home" button in the upper right-hand corner. It seems as if the Home and Forums buttons both go back to the same page. I'm not sure if there were plans to have a portal-type page or what not to fill in the "Home" button, but it seems like a waste of a button if it doesn't go anywhere.
Moving on to the actual index of the board. There are three categories of forums, each containing a decent amount of individual forums. The only category that I am a bit skeptical about is the "FPS Discussion" category. I understand the board is about FPS games, but I would be careful having different forums for each game. Doing so can really divide up conversations between your member-base; which could be a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it. In addition, by doing so, you constantly have to add on new forums and decide which games are popular enough to have their own forums. See where I'm coming from? You're doing a good job so far with it though; the only game I don't see on there that I can think of is the up-and-coming Battlefield III sequel.
In regards to the sheer size of the forum, it's quite adequate. I feel like this kind of board could have easily been scaled too large or too small, but instead it's just right. The main index stays on topic for the most part, and provides adequate off-topic space. There are not too many boards on the main index, nor too few. Overall, it's very easy to navigate the forum, and a new user would have no issues working their way into the community. Just watch the "FPS Discussion" category! It's important to keep it up-to-date with the popular FPS games in order to keep discussion going!
Statistics and Activity – (13 out of 20)
Let's take a look at FPS Forum's stats for a moment!
Since opening in January, you have collected about 350 members who have made a total of fifteen thousand plus posts. Not bad for a forum being open six months. On top of that, the forum isn't that broad of a topic, so more props there! Out of those three hundred members, there are a total of eight staff members: there administrator's, one global moderator, and four sectional moderators. The staff to member ratio is just about perfect at this point. I'm never a fan of overpopulating the staff.
I have just one concern to spot about your staff. There is a sectional moderator, BR3W3R, that only has seven messages since April. I would expect moderators to be much more active in their areas of the forum, and even on the forum in general. Inactive staff can look pretty bad for your appearance, so I would either encourage him to do better or let him go. In addition, Brad, your Design Administrator, only has seven messages as well. Where I understand it's not his job to post but to design, it may be good to reassign his job title to "Designer" or something similar.
Actually, I have a second thing to mention about your staff:
half of them are inactive! There are three staff members that have not been online in over a week and one more that has been AWOL for a month... That looks really bad when running a forum because you need staff who will fuel conversation and get things done. They can't do that being inactive!
Other than that, just continue to bring new people in! Growing is always good in your situation, so keep it up!
Content – (9 out of 20)
So Content on forums is hard to judge. It's mostly reviewed by looking at two or three points: the area provided for discussion, the discussion contributed by the staff, and the discussion contributed by the members. We'll take a quick look at each one of these.
First, as I've mentioned earlier, there is adequate space provided for FPS discussion. It's very specific and divided, which can be both a good and bad aspect of a community. Just keep it up to date, and it will continue to be good! May I suggest, also, with your past experience running blogs: would it be a bad idea to find one or two people to report on up-and-coming FPS games or provide information on some new DLC, etc? (Just an idea I thought of that you may enjoy.)
Second, the discussion contributed by the staff. Jamie is, by far, one of the largest leaders in discussion. I give props to the time that has gone into fueling the discussion that you have. The rest of your staff, however, I wish I could say was as good as you. The two staff members that I mentioned earlier as a concern also rise again here for their lack of content contribution. Staff such as BR3W3R, Brad, and Jordan seem to not contribute significantly at all, which is crucial for your content to be pristine.
Finally, the discussion contributed by your members will always vary. There are multiple forums that have had no response since the 19th or 14th of May (something I should have also brought up in activity) which shows that many of your members aren't contributing on a consistent basis. As a forum, almost all of your content comes from your members. Members are why you are there in the first place, right?
I just noticed something, thanks to the help of my wonderful team leader: FPS Forum's off topic section completely stumps the on-topic material! She mentioned that you have gone through a merger which seems to have made this a problem. For an FPS-based forum, I would expect the discussion to be centered around FPS games. While you try to make it like such, your Off topic sections have over 8,000 posts where your FP sections may be lucky to break 1,000 posts.
Overall, FPS Forum's content is hit-and-miss. It provides adequate space for discussions and community, but both parts of the staff and members don't contribute enough for that space to be used. There are a few key posters who contribute on a regular basis, but not enough to make an impact on the forum. In addition, the main content area of the forum is severely lacking compared to the off-topic areas provided.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (16 out of 20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism is measured by three categories: the overall professional look of the website, the consistency of correct spelling and grammar throughout the forum itself, and the quality of posts made by staff members.
First, FPS Forum looks very professional. There isn't much more to it than that. It all goes back to Appearance and Layout, both of which you scored very high in. The forum just looks smooth, clean of obnoxious advertisements, and generally intriguing.
Second, I don't see many official spelling or grammar mistakes on the forum itself. The one thing I do want to mention though is the
forum descriptions. I swear I talk about this in every review and it's the biggest mistake that people make. Forum descriptions really should not contain the word "here" in them. Honestly, it makes the description boring and un-inviting. Now, on FPS Forums, the descriptions are not viewable 100% of the time, but it's still something you could improve. Try not to use the word "here."
Finally, the professionalism of the staff. Once again, the staff team is split. This time, staff members like Dusan contribute posts that are legible, but lack complete sentences and capitalization. In addition, the sentences are not very complex; they kind of seem like "n00b" sentences (the best way I could put it). Having staff who can contribute quality posts is crucial for your appearance as a professional forum. Just something to keep in mind!
Overall, FPS Forum maintains a professional masque, but has its weak points. Concentrating on finding staff with quality (and active) content and changing your forum descriptions would help your appearance greatly at this point!
Total Score - (72 out of 100)
Final Remarks:
FPS Forum is a great forum that has potential. It's biggest downfall at the moment is it's inactive staff and member base. The forum itself is built beautifully, it just needs a lot of work maintaining active members and contributing staff! Good luck on it!
Strengths:
- - Great appearance
- Enough space for great content
Weaknesses:
- - Inactive staff with poor content
- Forum descriptions are bland
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