SwitchForum.com Review

[Carlos X]

Site Name: SwitchForum - Nintendo Switch Forums
Date Opened: Oct 20, 2016
Review Requested (Quick/Advanced): Free Review Week Shenanigans
Notes: Fairly new Forum, but the domain is older. (Previous owner registered it on Oct 20, 2016, I acquired it during the week of Jan 7, 2017. I then acquired a similar Nintendo Forum on Mar 20, 2018, and merged it into SwitchForum.)

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[Ajay]

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Your Official Review is In Progress!​

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Thank you for requesting our services. I have tagged your thread and will finish an official review in less than 5 days. In the meantime, you will receive informal feedback from other reviewers and members at Forum Promotion. Once your official review is completed, you will be free to ask questions and receive feedback so long as your website remains open. You will also be able to request another review in thirty days after this Official Review is completed.

 

[edenwax]

Sorry for the delay! Here's your free basic review. 🙂

Official Review of
https://www.switchforum.com/

by @edenwax​

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First Impressions:
My first impressions of the site are that it looks solid the forum structure is good, but the performance and styling could use some work. I've noticed that the background image an uncompressed 2MB jpeg and it took a few seconds to render. You could seriously help your load times if you compress the image using something like Compressor.io. I was able to compress it by 69% with no noticeable degradation in quality. There are a bunch of other ways you could look at improving performance, I'd recommend checking out Google's PageSpeed Insights for some more in-depth information.

Style wise, when I go to a Nintendo Switch-related forum, I would expect a more.. bright, Nintendo-esque design. A good example of this would be the Nintendo Switch subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/

To help accomplish this it might be beneficial to brighten up the reds in the logo and theme and round some corners. Maybe get rid of the dark greys in lieu of more red and make the logo text white and with a more Switch-like font face. You could even try a design like this: https://i.imgur.com/DYi76F8.jpg

Another thing I've noticed is that the SSL certificate doesn't seem to work, Firefox thinks the connection is insecure. This can ultimately effect your SEO rating so this should be worth looking into!

Okay

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Site Structure:
I think this forum has a pretty good structure. On the side bar, however, I noticed this little section that says "Get Connected With SwitchForum.com". I don't think this is necessary and looks a little off. My recommendation would be to remove it altogether. Otherwise this appears to be a standard XenForo page layout and that is fine.

Good

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Originality:
I'm not seeing a very original design or board here. The domain is great, the background image looks great, the board structure is great, but it looks like every other forum using that theme. Consider my design recommendations in my first impressions piece to help make it stand out some!

Okay

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The thing I liked the best: Structure
The thing I liked the least: Unoriginal Design

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Overall Thoughts:​

SwitchForum.com is a great Nintendo Switch-focused forum with a lot of little shortcomings. It has potential to be up there with the best if you could improve the design, try to stand out some more, and improve the performance. Despite the inactivity the content appears to be good. This is a forum with a ton of potential if the above issues are addressed.

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Official Rating:

​

Review this feedback

 

[Carlos X]

My first impressions of the site are that it looks solid the forum structure is good, but the performance and styling could use some work. I've noticed that the background image an uncompressed 2MB jpeg and it took a few seconds to render. You could seriously help your load times if you compress the image using something like Compressor.io. I was able to compress it by 69% with no noticeable degradation in quality. There are a bunch of other ways you could look at improving performance, I'd recommend checking out Google's PageSpeed Insights for some more in-depth information.

I'll fix that soon.

Style wise, when I go to a Nintendo Switch-related forum, I would expect a more.. bright, Nintendo-esque design. A good example of this would be the Nintendo Switch subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/

To help accomplish this it might be beneficial to brighten up the reds in the logo and theme and round some corners. Maybe get rid of the dark greys in lieu of more red and make the logo text white and with a more Switch-like font face. You could even try a design like this: https://i.imgur.com/DYi76F8.jpg

Another thing I've noticed is that the SSL certificate doesn't seem to work, Firefox thinks the connection is insecure. This can ultimately effect your SEO rating so this should be worth looking into!

1. Design-Wise; I was more going for the simplistic design, a more toned down design from the other Nintendo sites splashing cartoony Nintendo designs, and splashing Nintendo all over (Mario, Koopas, etc.). And secondly, that logo is intended, as well. I wanted to go for different fontstyle, and design to differentiate from Nintendo's trademark. I mean, the Nintendo Switch logo is still "visible" but I still have to make the site "different."

Most of the Nintendo sites I've seen out there use a lot of bright red, which really hurts my eyes when reading, which is the other reason why I opted to go for this design.

2. If you are seeing "broken" SSL certificate, it's because the page has non-SSL images or google ads.

EDIT: Turns out, it was a background code that caused it. I had to change the old image from HTTP to HTTPS. It's been fixed now. (It's odd, though!)

I think this forum has a pretty good structure. On the side bar, however, I noticed this little section that says "Get Connected With SwitchForum.com". I don't think this is necessary and looks a little off. My recommendation would be to remove it altogether. Otherwise this appears to be a standard XenForo page layout and that is fine.

Previously, this section was that like box that you see in thread list. I decided to put it there because of being inspired by PS4Forum's old vB4 design.

SwitchForum.com is a great Nintendo Switch-focused forum with a lot of little shortcomings. It has potential to be up there with the best if you could improve the design, try to stand out some more, and improve the performance. Despite the inactivity the content appears to be good. This is a forum with a ton of potential if the above issues are addressed.

Thanks for the kind comments! 🙂