Site URL: The Isle Forum
Date Opened: 10-20-2016
Review Type: Newbie Review
Review Areas: All
Extra Notes: None
Date Opened: 10-20-2016
Review Type: Newbie Review
Review Areas: All
Extra Notes: None
The Isle Forum
- Thread starter Beyonder
- Start date
D
Deleted member 17779
@Beyonder
For the "Newbie" review, you can choose two (2) different areas to be covered in your review that you are requesting. You may choose from the following list:
For the "Newbie" review, you can choose two (2) different areas to be covered in your review that you are requesting. You may choose from the following list:
- First Impressions
- Number of Posts & Members
- Activity Level
- Site Structure
- Design Quality
- Originality
- Spelling, Grammar & Professionalism
Dang....I'll go with Originality and First Impressions!
Your Review is In Progress!
Thank you for requesting feedback. I have tagged your thread, and will finish an official Newbie review within at most 24 hours. In the meantime, you will receive informal feedback from other reviewers and members at Forum Promotion. Once your official Newbie 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 a re-review 7 days after this Newbie Review is completed.
Newbie Review of The Isle Forum
http://www.the-isle.net/
Review by xanaftp
http://www.the-isle.net/
Review by xanaftp
It is important for websites to grab the interest of their visiters quickly, given our modern fast-paced world of technology these days. For that, as part of all first impression reviews I do, I run a "10 second test" by viewing your website for 10 seconds to see if, within those 10 seconds, I can understand what your website is about and what your call to action is.
The results of the 10 second test were as follows: Right away, I saw a sub-headline under your logo that let me know what your forum was about (a survival game forum). This is great because your users will know almost immediately what your forum's focus is within the 10 seconds you have to grab their attention. I would however recommend shortening the sub-headline a little bit (try making it a catchy but useful slogan/phrase instead of a full sentence) and also making the text size of your sub-headline a bit bigger (at least a little bigger than most other text on the website, but not as big as your logo). That way, it will stand out and grab attention right away. I also noticed your call to action in the form of an overlay dialogue box asking the guest user to register. I personally would not recommend using overlay dialogues for calls to action; use a very visible button or link on your website instead (you already use a red register menu item, which is great). The reason for this is because the overlay can distract your guest from the rest of the content on the website, which can lower registrations and conversions. Your goal is for them to grab as much information as they can about your website (but not too much; only the essential) within 10 seconds.
The rest of this review was done more thoroughly and is not part of the 10 second test I did.
The forum looks well laid out. It is clean, the colors are complimentary, and it's not cluttered with a bunch of sidebars and widgets. Your navigation menu, however, is pretty cluttered and could use some work. My suggestion is to put your social media buttons in the footer of your website rather than on the navigation menu. I feel social media is not relevant to navigation and therefore does not belong on a navigation menu. The menu should be about your website/forum. I would also recommend moving your register and log in buttons down to the bar below the navigation menu (where search is right now), moving search up to the navigation menu bar, and then putting your inline login form and register / login buttons on bar where the search used to be on. And then finally, get rid of the bar you currently use for your inline login form. I provided a picture diagram to demonstrate what I mean:
I noticed your staff board is visible, even though I can't access it. I would not recommend making any form of staff-only forums visible to anyone except staff themselves because it is irrelevant to anyone who isn't staff. Try to ensure users only see what is relevant to them.
I like the idea of using dinosaurs as topic indicators, but it lacks any true visual queues as to new posts, locked threads, and so on. If you plan to use dinosaur icons, I would recommend throwing a relevant icon in the bottom right of each (such as a star for new posts, a lock symbol for locked topics, exclamation point in a yellow triangle for announcements, a flame for hot/popular topics, a thumb tac for pinned posts, and exclamation point in a green or red triangle (or some other color other than yellow that grabs attention) for global announcements. Your icons also need to be resized or re-styled because they sometimes stretch and overlap text, which it shouldn't do. The icon should shove other text over to the right a bit so that the icon and text are not overlapping each other.
I like how you clearly and cleanly have your forums separated. You have your forums relating to the game grouped together in "the Isle", and you have off topic forums grouped in "off topic". If you don't already have them, I would recommend having a third group, which comes above "The Isle", containing the forums "News and Announcements" (for all your global announcement threads), and "Questions and Suggestions" (also put any other forum-related forums you wish in there). This will enable a better user-staff pipeline of communication so users are up to date with forum matters and can provide feedback for you. The "News and Announcements" forum would take all the site-related news and announcements threads out from your current The Isle News and Announcements forum. I feel it is better to separate forum news from game news.
Quick suggestion for your hit counter on the home page: I don't think you need 30 leading zeros in that counter. Even Google doesn't get that many views. I'd stick with only a couple leading zeros at most. All those zeros can be distracting from the actual number. I'd also recommend putting this counter in the footer rather than on the home page; sticking it solely on the home page means it is only counting hits to the home page and nowhere else.
Your profile pages lack a label for "gender". But they are otherwise simple. I like all the statistical information about users presented in the statistics tab. I'd like to suggest though clearly labeling your advertisements under the activity section; I saw an ad that confused me and didn't look like an ad but rather an RP map of some sort for The Isle. So that needs moving or labeled as ad.
Other than my several suggestions above, your site has a good start in terms of first impressions. With some improvement, it can become even better and more attractive to new visitors.
First Impressions verdict: Average
I will admit upfront that I am not a gamer because I have seizures, so I am not very familiar with the gaming community. That being said, I have not been able to find another still-open The Isle forum easily via Google search (other than Steam), which is a plus for you for originality. And forums dealing with a specific gaming community, especially one that isn't popular and already has a lot of forums such as like Grand Theft Auto, get bonus points for originality from me.
That being said however, I do think originality could be improved a bit. Despite your forum focusing on a game that isn't widely popular and doesn't really have many other, if any other, forums, I think the forum needs a little more excitement. Forums that score big on originality also do unique things, such as special contests and giveaways and other things you traditionally wouldn't see forums generally doing. So my recommendation to add additional engagement and originality to the community is to really think about the fanbase of The Isle as well as the game itself. What special and unique traits does the game and the fanbase have compared to most other games and fanbases? How can you use those traits to your advantage to create something unique, original, and fun for your community? Perhaps you could offer a group of staff members who are very experienced with the game to give users helpful tips and pointers as to how to survive the game. Maybe you could set up "group gaming party events" since The Isle is a multiplayer game. Maybe you could have a leaderboard of some sort where users submit in-game screenshots of their scores (I don't know if you have a "score" in The Isle) and you can list the highest scorers. Going even further, maybe you can have top scorers present a testimony as to what strategies they used to achieve those scores, which would be helpful to other gamers.
In short, there are many different ideas you can come up with to add new, exciting, and unique features to your forum to spark activity. It may take a lot of thinking out of the box, but having unique aspects about your forum will make it stand out from other forums and convince others to join yours because you're the only The Isle (or related games) forum that does [insert feature here]. Also having unique features will encourage your members to play the game more, as well as interact more on your forums.
Originality verdict: Average
Thing you liked best about forum: The focus is on a game that isn't yet popular and doesn't have any other community-run forum that I can tell.
Thing you liked least about forum: The forum lacks any hard-hitting features that could potentially drive lots of activity for it.
Overall Mark:
You have a nice start to the forum. It's relatively clean aside from a couple issues. I knew right away what the forum was for based on your sub-headline. The styling and colors are, for the most part, functional and easy to see. And the forum is about a game that's still in development and not widely popular. But the forum could be improved by adding more engaging features to encourage forum and game participation. Once you do this and promote your forum even more, you should get a little bit more activity. Please don't be discouraged though if your forum doesn't take off with high activity levels for now, considering The Isle is a very small and beta game at the moment. But perhaps you could utilise your forum to encourage more people to buy and play the game 😉 .
You have a nice start to the forum. It's relatively clean aside from a couple issues. I knew right away what the forum was for based on your sub-headline. The styling and colors are, for the most part, functional and easy to see. And the forum is about a game that's still in development and not widely popular. But the forum could be improved by adding more engaging features to encourage forum and game participation. Once you do this and promote your forum even more, you should get a little bit more activity. Please don't be discouraged though if your forum doesn't take off with high activity levels for now, considering The Isle is a very small and beta game at the moment. But perhaps you could utilise your forum to encourage more people to buy and play the game 😉 .
Alright Thank you!
Wow thank you for the feedback i will keep all these comments in mind for the future and most of the features given are through full registrations and such as Gallery,Chatbox, and other features.
Newbie Review of The Isle Forum
http://www.the-isle.net/
Review by xanaftp
First Impressions:
It is important for websites to grab the interest of their visiters quickly, given our modern fast-paced world of technology these days. For that, as part of all first impression reviews I do, I run a "10 second test" by viewing your website for 10 seconds to see if, within those 10 seconds, I can understand what your website is about and what your call to action is.
The results of the 10 second test were as follows: Right away, I saw a sub-headline under your logo that let me know what your forum was about (a survival game forum). This is great because your users will know almost immediately what your forum's focus is within the 10 seconds you have to grab their attention. I would however recommend shortening the sub-headline a little bit (try making it a catchy but useful slogan/phrase instead of a full sentence) and also making the text size of your sub-headline a bit bigger (at least a little bigger than most other text on the website, but not as big as your logo). That way, it will stand out and grab attention right away. I also noticed your call to action in the form of an overlay dialogue box asking the guest user to register. I personally would not recommend using overlay dialogues for calls to action; use a very visible button or link on your website instead (you already use a red register menu item, which is great). The reason for this is because the overlay can distract your guest from the rest of the content on the website, which can lower registrations and conversions. Your goal is for them to grab as much information as they can about your website (but not too much; only the essential) within 10 seconds.
The rest of this review was done more thoroughly and is not part of the 10 second test I did.
The forum looks well laid out. It is clean, the colors are complimentary, and it's not cluttered with a bunch of sidebars and widgets. Your navigation menu, however, is pretty cluttered and could use some work. My suggestion is to put your social media buttons in the footer of your website rather than on the navigation menu. I feel social media is not relevant to navigation and therefore does not belong on a navigation menu. The menu should be about your website/forum. I would also recommend moving your register and log in buttons down to the bar below the navigation menu (where search is right now), moving search up to the navigation menu bar, and then putting your inline login form and register / login buttons on bar where the search used to be on. And then finally, get rid of the bar you currently use for your inline login form. I provided a picture diagram to demonstrate what I mean:
I noticed your staff board is visible, even though I can't access it. I would not recommend making any form of staff-only forums visible to anyone except staff themselves because it is irrelevant to anyone who isn't staff. Try to ensure users only see what is relevant to them.
I like the idea of using dinosaurs as topic indicators, but it lacks any true visual queues as to new posts, locked threads, and so on. If you plan to use dinosaur icons, I would recommend throwing a relevant icon in the bottom right of each (such as a star for new posts, a lock symbol for locked topics, exclamation point in a yellow triangle for announcements, a flame for hot/popular topics, a thumb tac for pinned posts, and exclamation point in a green or red triangle (or some other color other than yellow that grabs attention) for global announcements. Your icons also need to be resized or re-styled because they sometimes stretch and overlap text, which it shouldn't do. The icon should shove other text over to the right a bit so that the icon and text are not overlapping each other.
I like how you clearly and cleanly have your forums separated. You have your forums relating to the game grouped together in "the Isle", and you have off topic forums grouped in "off topic". If you don't already have them, I would recommend having a third group, which comes above "The Isle", containing the forums "News and Announcements" (for all your global announcement threads), and "Questions and Suggestions" (also put any other forum-related forums you wish in there). This will enable a better user-staff pipeline of communication so users are up to date with forum matters and can provide feedback for you. The "News and Announcements" forum would take all the site-related news and announcements threads out from your current The Isle News and Announcements forum. I feel it is better to separate forum news from game news.
Quick suggestion for your hit counter on the home page: I don't think you need 30 leading zeros in that counter. Even Google doesn't get that many views. I'd stick with only a couple leading zeros at most. All those zeros can be distracting from the actual number. I'd also recommend putting this counter in the footer rather than on the home page; sticking it solely on the home page means it is only counting hits to the home page and nowhere else.
Your profile pages lack a label for "gender". But they are otherwise simple. I like all the statistical information about users presented in the statistics tab. I'd like to suggest though clearly labeling your advertisements under the activity section; I saw an ad that confused me and didn't look like an ad but rather an RP map of some sort for The Isle. So that needs moving or labeled as ad.
Other than my several suggestions above, your site has a good start in terms of first impressions. With some improvement, it can become even better and more attractive to new visitors.
First Impressions verdict: Average
Originality:
I will admit upfront that I am not a gamer because I have seizures, so I am not very familiar with the gaming community. That being said, I have not been able to find another still-open The Isle forum easily via Google search (other than Steam), which is a plus for you for originality. And forums dealing with a specific gaming community, especially one that isn't popular and already has a lot of forums such as like Grand Theft Auto, get bonus points for originality from me.
That being said however, I do think originality could be improved a bit. Despite your forum focusing on a game that isn't widely popular and doesn't really have many other, if any other, forums, I think the forum needs a little more excitement. Forums that score big on originality also do unique things, such as special contests and giveaways and other things you traditionally wouldn't see forums generally doing. So my recommendation to add additional engagement and originality to the community is to really think about the fanbase of The Isle as well as the game itself. What special and unique traits does the game and the fanbase have compared to most other games and fanbases? How can you use those traits to your advantage to create something unique, original, and fun for your community? Perhaps you could offer a group of staff members who are very experienced with the game to give users helpful tips and pointers as to how to survive the game. Maybe you could set up "group gaming party events" since The Isle is a multiplayer game. Maybe you could have a leaderboard of some sort where users submit in-game screenshots of their scores (I don't know if you have a "score" in The Isle) and you can list the highest scorers. Going even further, maybe you can have top scorers present a testimony as to what strategies they used to achieve those scores, which would be helpful to other gamers.
In short, there are many different ideas you can come up with to add new, exciting, and unique features to your forum to spark activity. It may take a lot of thinking out of the box, but having unique aspects about your forum will make it stand out from other forums and convince others to join yours because you're the only The Isle (or related games) forum that does [insert feature here]. Also having unique features will encourage your members to play the game more, as well as interact more on your forums.
Originality verdict: Average
Thing you liked best about forum: The focus is on a game that isn't yet popular and doesn't have any other community-run forum that I can tell.
Thing you liked least about forum: The forum lacks any hard-hitting features that could potentially drive lots of activity for it.
Overall Mark:
You have a nice start to the forum. It's relatively clean aside from a couple issues. I knew right away what the forum was for based on your sub-headline. The styling and colors are, for the most part, functional and easy to see. And the forum is about a game that's still in development and not widely popular. But the forum could be improved by adding more engaging features to encourage forum and game participation. Once you do this and promote your forum even more, you should get a little bit more activity. Please don't be discouraged though if your forum doesn't take off with high activity levels for now, considering The Isle is a very small and beta game at the moment. But perhaps you could utilise your forum to encourage more people to buy and play the game 😉 .
I think having galleries etc. visible to guests despite them being registered user features is fine, and perhaps encouraged. That way, guests can see what they will have access to in terms of features when they register. It's just the things that wouldn't even be relevant to registered users that probably should be hidden, like the staff forum.
Thank you for your compliment, and I hope my review ends up being very helpful for you and your community. 🙂
😀 No problem for the compliments! thanks again!
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Last edited:
Do i use real money? or the FP Money?Newbie Basic Review has been Completed!
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Reviews utilise the FP money you have earned.
Good to know lol because i havent been on here in years so Im new to the change.
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