Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
Before your fora even loads, I notice the favicon. It gives me the impression that your forum is some sort of support forum or one that contains guides or very helpful information. Your banner contradicts that when it shows the pokemon, and states that it's a Pokemon fan site and community. I would recommend that you change the favicon to a Pokemon. Personally, I like Mudkips and found this image that would look like a nice favicon -
but that's just a personal opinion on the matter.
The banner looks OK, but in that area it's not the problem. Before you see any of the forums at all you see a large advertisement. I would recommend that you move that advertisement down to beneath the fora so that guests at least see the forums first before viewing the advertisements.
The forum icons (
) say "IPB" (which stands for IPBoard) as opposed to saying something about your forum or some Pokemon. Your forum is a Pokemon fan sight, not an IPBoard support or fan site, so I see no reason to have that or any variation of it for your forum icons. And even if they didn't say "IPB" on them, the edges of them are not smooth and they don't match the theme.
The banner background does not match the rest of the forum. It is some sort of gray-blue color, and nothing else in the forum is that color. I would recommend that you center the banner and make that gray-blue color disappear by changing it to the forum background color.
The shout box at the bottom of the forum makes the page load slower for me and it just generally looks out of place there. I would recommend that you either get an integrated shout box for the forum or change the width of the shout box to match the width of the forum and change the height so that it is smaller and looks less out of place right there.
While I'm down at the bottom of the forum, I would like to mention that I'm not a fan of how you have the widgets scrolling left. You only have five of the affiliates, so it wouldn't stretch the page to have them all just solitary on the bottom of the forum. Having that scrolling at the bottom of the forum can distract users from the actual content and hurt their eyes (personally, it gives me a head ache). Then again, going by the "it can distract from the actual content" line, I should say to get rid of the chat box. But chat boxes can bring users together, and that could be just what your fora needs to make it superb.
Moving onto something that's more positive, I rather like how you have the "Miscellanous" and the other categories centered with an arrow in front of them. That's a rather unique way to line a forums categories up from what I've seen, and I actually really like it.
(Scored 5/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
I recommend that you make the Archive and Trash Can not viewable to guests or members. Since we can't post there and there's no valuable information there (I did see what looked like someone advertising some quality porn though *sarcastic jokes*), being no reason for us to view it. All they're doing is making the index page longer, and people tend not to like to have to scroll a lot on forums.
I don't see a reason for you to have so many off topic boards because they're so far away from your subject (i.e. the Library forum), but if you must keep them I would recommend that you make the role playing category a sub category in the library forum. I would also recommend that you merge the "
Non-Pokémon Related" and the "Miscellanous" categories because they're basically the same, except that the Non-Pokemon related category has specific games or characters (or whatever they are, sorry I don't really follow those games.
Other than that, there's really nothing wrong with how you have your forums set up. It's an easy to navigate, simple layout. It's good for people how have never seen your forum before. Nice job with that.
(Scored 10/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Considering your forum was started back in 2008, your statistics are not good to say the least. Your forum has the statistics of a new forum.
When I was viewing the fora, there was no members nor other guests on the fora besides myself. I think that you should really work on the activity of the forum. I would recommend that you order posting packages and do exchanges to help make your forum look more active (even if it is not) so that it may be more attractive active-wise to other potential members. Unless of course, that is unethical to you. In such case I recommend that you submit your fora to Google and Bing, then add it to some forum directories. I've found that submitting to directories can get you some guests and views. Creating a promotion topic would also be very beneficial to you; if you need you may PM me and I'll PM you a list of over thirty or so promotion forums (or forums that allow a promotion topic) that would be good to add a promotion topic on.
The first thing that you should do though, is make at least one or two topics in the forums that have absolutely no posts at all. Even if all the other forums have very little posts and topics in them, if every forum has at least one or two topics in it, it can make the forum look much more active.
Inviting your online and real life friends, as well as adding a link or fancy banner to your signature on forums you loiter at may also be beneficial to the growth of your fora.
(Scored 2/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
I really can't find a place where it's spelled out plainly how many staff you have, but from a quick search of the forum it looks like you're the only staff member there. Taking your forum size into consideration, I think that your forum could use one-two moderators to help you with the forum, but other than that you have a good staff (consisting of yourself). If you're away, there would be no one to watch the forum is anything happens or keep discussion regularly flowing. So, I think you need at least one new moderator to help you run the forum.
(Scored 13/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I love your forum descriptions. All are the "just right" size (not to long, not too short), and all of them clearly say what the forum is about and what content goes inside of it. Not all are said that way directly, but from the description you can take a good guess at what's inside of the forum. That's great, your descriptions really make your forum look more professional and that it has some good content (regardless of whether it does or does not actually have some good content inside of it).
I also noticed that you have no (or if you had one, it's so small that I couldn't detect it) spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes in your forum descriptions and forum titles. That's great.
In your threads I also noticed little-no mistakes regarding (there were some, but you really can't control how members post so I will not hold anything like that against your forum and it's professionalism/spelling/grammar score). That's great.
(Scored 20/20)
Total Score - 50/100
Final Remarks:
What was most liked about the website/forums: How awesome the descriptions were and the general spelling/grammar on the forum.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: The shout box and activity.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Improve the activity, and tweak the appearance of the forum.
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