Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
The first thing I notice at the top of the forum is your attractive banner. I like the lettering on your banner. It looks attractive, but it doesn't really look like a gaming site's banner. I would recommend adding some more game-related images to your banner to make it clear what your site is all about (although the title already does that). Scrolling down, your theme is quite bland. I feel like I've seen this a thousand times before. I would strongly recommend a whole new theme. I've always had the opinion that gaming sites should have dark themes. That may just be personal preference, but if you look at the major gaming sites (such as the official World of Warcraft web site), a lot of them (probably the majority) have dark designs. Even a light theme could work if it had a more unique design. Your forum just currently looks too default to me. Other than a few images, it doesn't really look like a gaming site, either.
Your forum's activity looks
okay at a glance. Your statistics are relatively low, and that never looks good to prospective members. I would recommend doing some post exchanges to gain some start-up posts. That way, users who look at your forum won't think that it's inactive. You don't have any empty forums, but a few of them are close. I would recommend posting some topics in the forums that are nearly empty to spark discussion in those areas. Forums with few posts never look good to prospective members.
Sorry to say it, but my first impression of your forum was slightly negative.
(Scored 8/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Your forum's index doesn't run too long, but the organization is a bit odd. First of all, your layout should place emphasis on the main focus of your site--gaming in your case. Right now, you've got seven "general" forums spread over two categories, and you've only got five forums for gaming. I think that you should change your layout a bit. I would recommend eliminating the "Entertainment" category and merging the two forums in that category into one "Entertainment" forum. Place that forum under the "General" category. Then, make the "Forum Games" section a sub-forum under the "Chat" section. After that, I think you should move the "Achievements" forum to your "Gaming Heaven" category. Users may want to broadcast their
gaming achievements to the world. An idea for another forum might be a "challenge" forum. Users can challenge each other to 1v1 matches on their favorite games or whatever else they like. If you make these changes, you will end up with four general forums and seven gaming forums. A layout like that would place more emphasis on the main focus of your site. For the sake of keeping your general forums more general, I would also recommend renaming your "Computing" forum to "Technology" or something of that nature. In addition to putting more emphasis on your site's main focus, this layout may also spark more discussion. Another miscellaneous change I might suggest is to eliminate the "Console Banter" section (you already have forums that could be used to discuss the main consoles) and adding a "General Gaming" section. That way, users can discuss games on multiple platforms there, and they can also discuss anything else that your other forums don't catch.
(Scored 13/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
According to my calculations, your forum currently has less than twenty posts per day, and you have about twenty-five posts for each of your twenty-three members. These statistics aren't great, but you did say that you've only been advertising for about half the time your site has been open, so I suppose that's the main reason. As I stated in the first section, post exchanges would be a great idea to get more start-up posts. Starting topics in the areas of the forum that don't have a lot of posts would also be a great idea. Since you don't run a discussion forum or anything of that nature, promotion forums may not be an extremely valuable resource for you in terms of gaining active members; however, promotion forums can help you find methods to reach your target audience. Search the discussion areas of Forum Promotion and other promotion forums to see what works for other administrators; it may work for you, too. You will want to post around on other gaming forums wearing your site's signature banner, link, or whatever else. Provide helpful responses; people may be tempted to check out your site. If you have any friends who like games, you should try to sign them up, too. Even friends who aren't familiar with forums can make good, loyal members (I'm speaking from experience here). I wish you luck with your promotion journey.
(Scored 8/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
Your only current staff members appear to be your two administrators. That is fine for the beginning, but be prepared to hire more staff members if your forum experiences a sudden boom in activity. Your staff members seem to maintain a good level of activity and do a good job of welcoming users to the forum, but I think that your staff members should be focusing more on creating content for your forum. In other words, I think you should post more topics. If you have more topics, then users will likely make more posts because they have more to discuss. Other than that, though, your staff seems to be doing a good job on the forum.
(Scored 18/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
Your descriptions appear to lack grammatical errors for the most part, but many of them are terribly redundant. I would recommend rewriting them and trying to make them less redundant and boring. A touch of creativity goes a long way towards impressing prospective members. You want your users to know that you've put a lot of effort into this forum just by looking at it. Make your forums sound like they're enjoyable, too.
(Scored 13/20)
Total Score - 60 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: I think that you've still got some work to do on your forum.
Strong points: Your staff members are doing a good job of welcoming users and posting actively.
Improvements to make: You need to work on your theme, layout, and forum descriptions. Your activity could also use a boost. Try posting more topics on the forum to spark discussion.
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