Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
Your forum feels very empty when I first visit it, this may sound odd, but there is a lot of open space that seems to be going to waste on the forum. I think one of the reasons for the empty feeling is that there are no borders of any kind that control the eyes flow through the forum. It is easy to end up looking at the background instead of looking at the actual content. This can easily be fixed by using a colour such as the one you have on the Create Account button to give the eye something to follow through the forum.
I really like the Welcome banner with the little robot peeking its head around it, this really tells me that this forum is about technology which isn't really reflected in your banner. The banner actually feels quite insulting with the slogan "We know, we're awesome". Personally I don't want to join a forum that feels that highly about itself. The logo you have is of a grunge style which isn't something I would expect to see on a modern technology forum. You have a great little mascot on the welcome banner, why not use him on the main logo?
I don't understand why you have the same introduction on the right sidebar as you do above the board. I suggest removing this. I don't feel that you need the CodeGuard or DMCA buttons on the index, this just looks odd, a footer text is more than enough. There is nothing about the forums appearance that makes me want to join your forum or spend more time there, I feel that you really need to put some more work into the first appearance of your forum. Make the forum look interesting and inviting, right now it looks just like any other tech forum on the web.
(Score: 14/20)
Site Layout
The first section, The Front Desk, contains exactly what I would expect from any forum. It contains the basic information, but I find it odd that the Forum Support and Feedback is a re-direct link that goes to some odd type of project overview with broken image links and no explanation of how it works. It would be much easier to just have a normal board that you and your staff can answer questions in.
The second section, Computers, contains 9 boards with hardly any posts in each, of all of these boards you could really manage with 1 or maybe 2. There just aren't enough posts in these boards, I would suggest one board for Computer Hardware and Software and one board for Gaming, that is all the current amount of posts needs.
The third section called the Lounge has 5 boards, which is again far too many, here you could manage easily with just one board called the lounge.
I feel that the whole board layout needs a re-think. There is so much more to do with technology than just computers. Right now I would call your forum a computer discussion forum, not a technology forum. I feel you need to re-think your niche and your layout. There is a lot to work on in this area.
The problem with having too many boards with only a few posts in each is that it makes your forum look inactive and new users get fed up of having to click in and out of boards all the time.
(Scored 5/20)
Statistics and Activity
Date Forum Opened: Around November 6th, 2011
637 Total Posts
30 Total Members
In the time I spent on your forum I didn't see a single member online. I did however see that there had been posts made today which shows a steady activity curve. Your forum has been open for nearly exactly 2 months which means an average of 316 posts per month which actually is pretty good, I don't understand why you were that worried about the activity. Your members have an average of 21 posts each, which is low for 2 months but it isn't a complete disaster. Your activity is getting there, you just need to work hard on keeping it there. I don't think you need to do anything more than what has already been suggested in this board and keep advertising to sort out the activity issues.
(Scored 14/20)
Staff Moderation
You have 1 admin and 1 moderator. I can't really see the need for having a moderator at the size your forum is, but it is always handy if you are unable to be on for some reason. You and your moderator are doing well in posting around the forum but you need to do more to engage other members so they reply to the posts you have made. You two make some good discussion together but it feels like your members are a bit scared to post and reply. I don't know why this is but you need to work on the community feel in your forum. This isn't something I can give you instructions on how to do, you will need to work it out yourself as every community is different.
(Scored 14/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
The board descriptions are poorly written on your forum and hard to locate. The way they work makes it hard to discover them which would leave many users who aren't used to your forum software confused and they probably would end up not reading them at all. The descriptions are short sentences, using slang and they aren't grammatically correct. Many people forget how important board descriptions are, I suggest you find someone who can help you re-write them and then someone else who can proof-read them for you.
The forum on a whole doesn't feel amazingly professional either, it feels like a bit of a quick throw together, but I can still see you are trying. Read some articles on running forums, they can really help you.
(Scored 9/20)
Total Score - 56/100
Final Remarks
I get the feeling that this is the first forum you are running, you seem to have slightly misunderstood the term technology forum and also fallen into many of the new forum owner traps such as the amount of boards and how to engage with members. Read a few articles and don't hesitate to ask questions, if you do this I am sure you will do well!
Strong Points
Some of your graphics, your activity and post counts
Things to Improve
Theme, user interaction and board descriptions
After reading your review, please click here to rate our service.
The Team Leader will deduct the cash from your account shortly.
