Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
Before I log in, I notice that I can't view the forum unless I log in? I don't think that's a good idea, how are users supposed to know if they have something to contribute to the forum before they join if they can't view the forum? Then once I log in I notice that you have it set so that users have to view a thread before they can view the forum for the first time. Again, I disagree with this. I find making users view a specific thread that you chose before being able to view the forum is very annoying and useless.
I think that your favicon would look a lot nicer if you made the white edges transparent.
The forum width is way off for me -
http://trollin.info/i/12492554154daf398 ... -width.png
Not only is this very annoying, but I also can't view the entire forum without scrolling sideways. And it's impossible for me to view the forum and the widgets together.
I think that you should move to shout box to below the forum. If I recall correctly, awhile ago there was a topic on this forum (or another?) about if users like shout boxes on forums. Most people said no, they don't like shout boxes. So I would recommend that you move the shout box to below the forum so it's not the first thing a user sees when they log in.
I think that the footer of the forum looks very messy. The statistic counter is red and black, so it doesn't match anything else in the forum and just generally looks out of place. I think you should get rid of the statistic counter all together or change the black background of it to #f2f2f2 (the forum footer background), and change the glow from the numbers to a sky blue. I think it would also help a bit if you moved the DigitalvB image in the footer to where the topsites are. I also think you should move the "All times are GMT. The time now is 05:36 PM." to across from the "Welcome to the Open-Planet.ORG - MMORPG Server Development Forums." above the forum body.
Other than that I think that you should make an edit or two to the banner so it's not so..simple. Simple isn't always bad, but your current banner could have been made easily in MS Paint. I like your forums color scheme, it's easy on the eyes and fairly pleasant.
(Score: 5/20)
Site Layout
I think you should remove the forum "RULES & REGULATIONS". Why have an entire forum for one thread? I think you should just make the rules thread a global announcement or sticky in the "announcements" forum.
I believe you should move the "Video Games And Consoles" forum to the category "Technology and Designs" and remove the "Gaming" category since there's only one forum in that entire category.
I think you should completely remove the category "Reporting, Infractions & Ban Appeals" and all the forums in it. Bans, infractions, and reports should be private, between the reporter, the staff, and the person reported. Not public to the whole forum.
Other than what I mentioned above, your forum is very easy to navigate, fairly organized, and has a good and simple layout. Nice job on that.
(Scored 10/20)
Statistics and Activity
At the time I'm viewing your forum, the statistics are as follows: Posts: 277, Members: 186. By those statistics I calculate that there's an average of one post per user. That's not good. It makes it look like you have a lot of fake accounts with no posts (and from the member list, I do see
a lot of members who have zero posts). I think you should do some post exchanges or request some post packages for your forum (unless it's against your morals - in which case, disregard this.). Some active-active member exchanges would be particularly helpful in the case of your forum.
I think that you should especially focus on getting posts in the forums have have no posts in them currently. That way there's at least one sample post in each forum so that members know what type of content belongs in each forum.
(Scored 5/20)
Staff Moderation
According to the group leaders page, your forum currently has four administrators and one super moderator. I think that four administrators is a bit much for such a small forum. It's not necessary for that many people to have access to the administration control panel when the forum isn't that large. I think you should make two of the administrators super moderators (or even just one of them a super moderator).
Two of the administrators have less than ten posts -- that's not good. The staff of the forum set an example for members. If the staff are not active and contributing to the forum, then how can you expect members to?
But, the other staff members look fairly active in the community.
(Scored 13/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
In the "Introductions" description - "Say Hello to the other members here and get to know them!" - "hello" doesn't need to be capitalized.
In many of the forum descriptions you write things like this - "Got any ideas and suggestions for the forum? Post them here, you may get awarded!" - I would suggest that you don't use the word "got". It doesn't sound professional. Changing it to "Do you have any ideas..." or "Have any ideas...". You did this in a few other forum descriptions also.
I think that you abuse the exclamation point. Twenty-two out of all your forum descriptions have an exclamation point after them. An exclamation point shows strong feelings or emotions (including yelling or strong happiness) - I think you should change some of those to periods or question marks.
I also notice that some of your forums descriptions are sentence fragments. For example - "Posts that has been reported by users.". That's not a full sentence. It should be something along the lines of "In this forum there are the posts that have been reported by users". (Also, in this specific description, you use "has" when it should be "have".)
Some of your forums do not have any descriptions at all - that's not good. Each forum should have its own description (even sub forums) so that users know exactly what goes in that forum and what that forum is about.
(Scored 7/20)
Total Score - 40/100
Final Remarks
Strong Points
The color scheme, how easy to navigate and well organized the forum is.
Things to Improve
The lack of activity, the forum width, and the footer.
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