Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20) First Impressions is a good one, the default colour scheme is appealing and attractive to new visitors to your site. The logo is well designed by only concern with the logo is it does not seem to go with the green colour scheme, to me it looks like it was designed for a blue theme. I would look at getting a new one done to fit the colour scheme.
A feature that really did appeal to me is the flag icons that translate. It should be a major selling point of your site as you should attract more foreign language users. I would suggest you make it so users know what the flag icons do and when you advertise your forum let others know about it. You also give users options to change the default theme and is good as not all users like the same theme. Overall the appearance is good, there are no adverts plastered across you forum and as I already said the theme is clean, appealing and easy to navigate.
(Scored 16/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20) The navigation menu is well thought about it allows users to easily navigate around the site with out having to scroll through pages to find what they want. While I like the statistics box I feel this should be at the bottom of the page not top, the reason for this is users what to see the forum first and foremost. The message about the first visit to the site is good and stands out to attract new visitors to it.
The forum icons are well thought about and fit in with each different forum, what I find is they are rather large and makes the forums larger than needed, look at re-sizing the icons. The other thing I picked up on is you have 27 forums on view on the index page, yet no sub-forums, when a user first visit's they are unlikely to scroll through every forum so look at moving some of the less busy ones into sub-forums, this will then make your forum index more organized.
(Scored 15/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20) You say you have been open since 2008-01-11
but I found a post from the 20/12/2007 (
http://www.syshacks.com/showthread.php/246-100-MEMBERS) also on your profile it tells me your join date is Dec 2007 so I used that date to judge the forum stats.
You have been open over 2 years and have a post count of 28,029 which is 33 post per day, which is ok but nothing fantastic, for a forum that has been open as long as you, it should be twice the size it is, I would recommend getting some posting packages done and also using the exchange forum to exchange posts with other users. What was also disappointing to see was you had 7429 members but only 149 active, you need to work out why they are not active and try and get them back, having a big membership count is only good if they are all active. Look at removing any dead accounts as well.
(Scored 10/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20) Well your staffing is all over the place, you are way over staffed for the size and activity of your forum and you will confuse users with how it is set up. I'll explain what I mean, you have a moderators group, moderator group and a global moderator group, there should only been on group for all moderators and for a site of your size have around 3 or 4 moderators. I counted 17!, you need to reduce this drastically.
The same can be said for administrators, a forum only needs one admin, you should only consider more when the work load is too much for one person. For example Forum Promotion has only 4 admins and is got a post count of nearly 500,000 and you 6 for a board with less that 30,000. You need to re-evaluate you staff and what roles they play, look at how other forums have their staffing set up. What's also to good to see is all your top posters seem to be staff members, new visitors don't want to see a board where the majority of posters are staff members.
(Scored 5/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20) I noticed quite a few spelling errors by your staff, here is one example : Syshackshas reached a lilestone of 100 Members in 8 Days.Enjoy guys.We Have been rated as the 4th Top Software Site.ROCK PEOPLE!!. It should say: Syshackshas has reached a milestone of 100 members in 8 days, enjoy guys. We have been rated as the 4th top software site. ROCK PEOPLE!!.
As staff you should all be setting an example so always check your posts before posting them, no ones perfect, even I will make the odd mistake but the worse thing for a visitor is seeing topics by staff riddled with spelling and grammar errors. The professionalism of the staff seems to be very good and there were not issues that needed staff attention.
(Scored 9/20)
Total Score - (55 of 100)
Final Remarks: The review started off rather well as on the surface it looks to be a good and active forum but the more I reviewed the worse it got but it can be sorted, sort out your staff issues and get the staff going through the forum to correct spelling and grammar errors. Look at getting some advertising done to promote your site more and look at why so many members are no longer active, there is always a reason. Also use FP's posting packages and exchange forums to boost your post count.
What was most liked about the website/forums: The sites theme and overall appearance was appealing to new visitors
What was disliked most about the website/forums: The forum was way over-staffed and those who were staff where the most active, which for me would put me off joining.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website?
Sort the issues I have highlighted above
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