Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
Just wow, I am not even a Pokémon fan but I can far by say this is one of the best designed and most intelligent Pokémon forum I have viewed for a while along with it being on a free remotely hosting platform. I could see that you and your team are very focused on guest's first impressions and this really done it for me. I have viewed through all the themes which you have, and it is a good selection to choose from but the Sundial, and Diamond & Pearl themes are the best in my opinion. One minor thing that let me down is the 'é' not getting put in the banners may drive some guest's away but not many, if you fix them then you probably would be getting full marks for this. Another thing that I wasn't sure off was the hit counter displayed in the footer of your forum, it just doesn't really seem to fit in at all and is not really needed.
(Scored 18/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
You have a very basic but attracting layout, most users usually just chuck everything into the one category relating to Pokémon. I think if you moved Pokémon News to the Pokémon Talk category and doesn't make the Main Information category look crowded. If you merged the Roleplay category in with the WiFi area category, it would save some space and time to scroll down. If you had some sort of user legend which I am sure you can enable in the Administration Panel it would be easier for guest's to know which some groups were plus I am quite interesting in knowing which groups you have in case it is over crowded which I doubt because there are three colours showing in the Online section but it can help in some reviews. Something I highly dis-liked about the forum was having a shout-box/chat-box, I thought the footer was overcrowded as it was seeing as it all ready had the disclaimer, hit counter, and IF copyright. If you were to move the shout-box/chat-box to a separate page and remove the hit counter your forum would be a lot more cleaner and meet some other fans attention.
(Scored 15/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
You have good statistics for a forum your size although we now see forums with 100 members reaching 10,000 post's in no time. I think you should send mass e-mails, set up a few competitions and battles to get the forum more active. You seem to have a steady userbase as I could tell that all the noises coming from the chat-box with members logging in and talking and doing what they usually do on a chat-box/shout-box. I could still see you getting a lot more post's instead of the current ones you have. Most Pokémon forums fail to reach 1,000 post's but you are succeeding very well and if you promote more using Forum Promotion's services and other forums services you will be the top of the leaderboard. I would also recommend using Top Site and Directories.
(Scored 16/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
Your moderators seem very chatty and kind towards new members but I saw they were asking for more activity I thought it was quite cheeky but we all don't take things in the correct way. The other staff members seem positive on which they are doing but perhaps limit down on staff as the forum seem's to be growing slowly and the staff probably just want powers to see what they are doing but then on the other hand I don't know them personally. You should try working on some of the staff and this also includes members also not to go off-topic at important topics and feedback and what not. They get carried away easily but every community has people like that, that is what makes a community fun.
(Scored 15/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
Here are a few things that I have fixed for you in the forum descriptions.
Trade Station > Do all your trading here in this forum , or even request a trade. We have a sticky for quick trade, use for faster requests and you may get your pokemon faster. (full stop at end of sentence)
Non-related Pokemon RP(capitalise the title) > Tired of roleplaying about pokemon. Do something else like DBZ or Yu-Gi-Oh. (capitalise DBZ & Yu-Gi-Oh)
You should try using more comma's(,) in your forum descriptions instead of constantly doing a full stop at the end of a short sentence use a comma to make it a whole sentence, this definitely put me off.
On the other hand your professionalism seems well I can't decide, it is like balancing on scales and you can't rate it, but you definitely need to be more descriptive in announcements and when members give feedback, your staff seem to be able to punctuate sentences and so do a lot of members, just a few minor points.
(Scored 14/20)
Total Score - 78(Out of 100)
Final Remarks:
What was most liked about the website/forums: The theme selections and the way you thought about your forums appearance.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: The shout/chat box and hit counter didn't do it for me.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Honestly I would join it if I had an interest in PokeMon just afraid I don't but perhaps try removing and fixing some descriptions.
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