Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
First impressions are there is too much happening on the index page. The site banner is good but does not blend well with the forums style and the text on the logo is not very clear.
Also the whole forum looks too squashed and cluttered due to the side panel and the small width you have. The Pokemon icons are good though and add that unique touch to the site. Having read your previous review, things have not really changed since then.
(Scored 10/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
As I said in my first impressions the site is too squashed. I’m not a fan of side panels on the main index page of forums and your site is a prime example. I feel it takes away from the actual forum itself. Most of what you have on the side panel could either be moved to the bottom of the page underneath the forums like the affiliates and credits or to a separate page like the chat box.
24 forums on an index page is way too much and a visitor is very unlikely to scroll all the way down to the bottom to find what they are looking for. You need to look at either merging them or making some of them sub-forums. I do like the site banner and it fits nice with what your site is about. I would recommend you make the text stand out more, as it is a little too faint.
The other thing that needs looking at is the size of the font, its too small and is very hard to read, I had to increase the page size just to read it.
(Scored 10/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Going on your given open date of 22/1/10 your posting stats are ok but you need to keep it going. You have a good post per day average of 41, look to keep pushing it higher. You only have 51 users which is less than one a day, you really need to get more members by advertising more and offering incentives to new users.
You have done well in the short time you have been open, but you need to keep pushing, more new topics and posts mean more things for users to reply to and this will help attract new users.
You seemed to be very busy in your first month but you have since slowed down. You need to get the same sort of activity you had in your first month going again.
(Scored 14/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
Having looked at your staff to user ratio, you are way over staffed. A forum with only 51 members does not need 2 admins and 5 moderators, you need to look at letting some of the staff go, for example, a site with roughly the same post count and same number of users only has 1 admin and 1 moderator.
From reading some of your topics, some of your staff members are not very active, which does not look good and as a staff member they should lead by example. If your staff are not active then you can not expect your users to be, I would advise adding some guidelines to staff roles about being active.
(Scored 9/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I’ve noticed one minor error but you looked to have corrected the ones from your first review. The one I noticed were the links on the top of your page (members, help etc) these should all start with a capital letter it looks more professional. All your posts I read from your staff were well written and had no errors, which is very good and gives a very good impression.
I like that you have good forum descriptions, they tell a user exactly what the forum is all about which is helpful.
(Scored 19/20)
Total Score - (62 of 100)
Final Remarks:
Look at getting an improved template and also look at getting rid of the side panel, you need to keep promoting your forum to gain new members look at promoting on other like minded forums. You need to decrease you staff size as well
What was most liked about the website/forums:
I likeed your banner if you could find a them to fit the banner you will be on a a real winner
What was disliked most about the website/forums:
The side panel is just not really need and makes your forum looked squashed.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Just do the improvements I recommended and you will attract more members
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...sometime in that week anyways
