Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
I’m going to say this from the start – your forum is too thin. I’m seriously seeing about 2x as much background on a 22” monitor than actual forum, which is a major problem. Most skins today should be fluid, not fixed-width like yours. Another thing is your logo. The top text mixes in too much, and the bottom is pretty dark, and not bright enough. A logo should have more…effect, you know, images, effects, sparkles, etc. It should stand out. On the other hand, you had some good points. The color scheme is very nice. It’s a very calming and inviting blue. It’s a pretty color. Also, your text is easy to read. It’s not that white-on-gray junk some people seem to love. I also like that you have a favicon. One thing though is some of your forum icons look jagged. This one,
for example, on the corners.
(Scored 14/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Again, there are a few things I like and don’t like. This time, I’ll start with the positive. I like that the shoutbox/chat thing is at the bottom. It drives me nuts when people stick those things at the top of the forum, and sometimes they’re like huge. Yours is fine. Your forum layout is pretty good. I don’t like that you have like 4 forums (one is a link) for your personal portfolio site. Having a huge, apparent ad for yourself like that, doesn’t exactly reel members in. A global announcement, maybe, but not like 3 forums. Other than that, your forum layout is fine.
(Scored 17/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
For being open a year or so, you’re doing alright. Not great, but OK. You really should be at 10K posts by now, you’re at 6K. You Marketplace, Contests, and your website portfolio forums seem to be starving for activity. (Further evidence the bottom ones need to go.) The other forums seem alright. You have to also consider that as an admin/staff team, you all have like 3,000 posts, meaning actual users have only posted 3,000 or so. That could really be improved. You don’t want all your activity coming from staff.
(Scored 15/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
You seem to have a lot of staff. You didn’t give me a guest account, so I couldn’t access the full list. I don’t know what a “Ninja” is either. Regardless, you seem to have roughly 3 admins and 3 mods. That’s a bit much for a site with 120 members. Also, one of your moderators only has 38 posts, which seems a little low of a number to be hiring him as a staff member. I think you should quit hiring staff, and even though they do a good job, stabilize your amount of staff.
(Scored 15/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I did notice a few minor errors.
“Discuss with others about the latest and maybe the scariest films out there!” should be, “Discuss with others about the latest, and maybe the scariest, films out there!”
“Discussion for all things related to Television.” should be, “Discussion for all things related to television.”
“Hold your own competition or participate in an official one here!” should be, “Hold your own competition, or participate in an official one, here!”
Those are the main ones I noticed.
(Scored 17/20)
Total Score -80 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: Your forum was neither remarkably bad nor remarkably great.
What was most liked about the website/forums: Spelling was good, staff was pretty active.
[/img]What was disliked most about the website/forums: Layout and some stats.
[/img]How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Make the site more exciting and improve the activity.
After you have read your review, please click the following link and rate our service to help us make it better for you.... [
Click Here]
.
