Took a few hours to go over your site.. here is the review, should help you out!
Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
The second I click onto your forums the first thing I notice is the banner up in the corner.
It definitely isn't bad, but I would suggest beefing it up a bit. First, your site is for RuneScape private servers, but the banner says "Rsps Land " which may be problematic for some guests... It may be better if you change the banner and have it say " RuneScape Private Server Land " this way the genre of your forum is easily known. " The Ultimate Community " doesn't seem to click for me. I would consider naming it " The Ultimate RuneScape Community " or the " Ultimate Private Server Community ".
The theme seems to fit well with your genre, as RuneScape is a game and this is a more black, sleek, gaming type skin.
The layout of the boards are very very problematic and there are so many boards there, as a guest clicking onto your site for the first time, I would X out immediately. I will delve more into this below.
Overall, the main problem is the wording on the banner.. other than that I think you did a superb job with the theme.
(Scored 15/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Okay, we've got some problems here.
The category " RPSLAND " works great, but the boards are out of control.
I will give you a suggestion of how it should look:
Category: RPSLAND
--Board: Announcements
--Board: Suggestions/The Community
--Board: Official Server
--Board: Affiliates
--Board: Introduce Yourself
That cuts it down to 5, which is already almost too many.
You really overdid the boards, you have a board for " General Discussions" but then you have a board for " The Site " it is unclear what you want to do here.. I suggest deleting all of the boards there minus Official Server, Affiliates, Announcements, and Introduce yourself, and start over, making just a suggestions/The Community board.
You don't need a board for " Report ". First of all, if you think members are going to be reporting staff that often it needs its own board, then that's a problem. Encourage members to simply PM you if there is a problem with a staff member.
Rs2 Development Category looks A-OK, but off topic is again a mess. Off topic should be at the way bottom, and should look like this:
Category: Off Topic
--Board: General Chat
----Subforum: Forum Games
----SubForum: News/Debates
--Board: Entertainment
---SubForum: Technology
---SubForum: Graphics
You have way too many categories going on here. I would suggest you delete your entire computers category and just redirect computers discussion to the newly created technology board.
I also suggest deleting the entire graphics category and redirecting all posts to the newly created graphics subforum.
Programming category also needs to go, redirect posts to the newly created technology board.
Forums/Websites, also needs to go. Redirect posts to Technology.
I also suggest you delete the entire RuneScape Black Market category because it just doesn't fit.
I would just make an entire category called " runescape " and set it like so:
Category: RuneScape
--Board: RuneScape Chat
--Board: RuneScape Black Market
---SubForum: RuneScape Accounts
---SubForum: RuneScape Gold/Items
That should really improve the look of your site...
The fact here is that your board is about RuneScape, having categories devoted to technology and categories devoted to graphics is just not needed. It makes the board look like a gigantic mess.
I suggest having your "RPSLAND" category first, then the runescape forums, then off topic, and that's it. Having all these categories is senseless.
(Scored 3/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
The board was founded 2-3 weeks ago, and you have 1,000 posts and 85~ members. This is outstanding!
Keep up those post exchanges and keep promoting.
(Scored 20/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
You've got Two Administrators, one Global Moderator, and one Moderator. This is already too much. I can't suggest you get anymore than this. This is plenty of staff for your site.
Looking at activity, your global moderator is quite active, as are both Administrators, and your forum Moderator is quite active aswell.
You don't want ANY more staff than this. You already are overdoing it with 4 staff members.. don't get anymore until you hit the 10k posts mark.
(Scored 18/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
The spelling and grammar are surprisingly phenomenal for a RuneScape forum, and the professionalism seems very much in check.
(Scored 20/20)
Total Score - 76 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks:
Concluding, your forum has great potential. You need to take my advice on the amount of boards and categories, you really really really really REALLY overdid it here.
You did a bang up job choosing the theme, and you also did great on choosing the look of the skin and I also love your choice of vBulletin, great software
🙂
What was most liked about the website/forums:
The theme, and the vBulletin software, I am also impressed with the dedication of your staff team.
What was disliked most about the website/forums:
The excessive amount of boards and categories is what I have to bring up here... take my advice, and you're board will do great
🙂
I also didn't like the banner too much, I suggest you re-word it.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website?
If you re-organized the categories, and somehow convinced me to play RuneScape, I'd be a member
😀
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