Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
One of the first things that I notice when I go to the forum index (just coming from the homepage), is that the site has a different favicon for the forum and for the other pages. You should have a bit of symmetry on the site overall, so that's not too good.
It's kind of hard to see the subtext in the banner -
https://www.ushost247.com/images/logo.png. Granted , I have bad eyes so it may just be me. But either way, I recommend that you space out the letters to choose a similar but less squished together font.
For the slide show* on the home page, I think you should have a button to "pause" slides, or make it so when you hover over a slide it stops. I tried reading the text on each slide out loud and couldn't even get half way through -- and I'm a pretty fast talker/reader.
*Sorry, I'm not exactly sure what it's called. It looks kind of like a slideshow to me, but pardon if I'm incorrect on that.
This page (and most pages that are linked to this page) have a different theme than the homepage and most pages that are connected through the home page -
https://www.ushost247.com/clients/index.php . I think you should
at least change the header of those pages to match the website homepage.The fact that I make a point about this when I didn't about the forum theme which also has a different theme may be a double standard, but I figure it would be difficult to match a forum theme with a website theme. Though, if you changed the forum header to match the website header it would look great.
Now moving past what I dislike slash think should be changed, I really like the homepage header. I think that those shades of blue are lovely and don't hurt your eyes (being too bright) but they also do not make you squint because it's so dark. Really nice header on the homepage.
(Scored 13/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
The first thing I noticed (in regards to the layout) was how the
Advertisements widget makes the side widgets longer than the forums and stretches the forum body. That's kind of irritating and makes the index look kind of off. I think you should move the advertisements widget to the bottom of the forum or re size it.
I really like how easy it is to find the terms of service -- navigating around in general seems to be great on the forum and site itself.
(Scored 15/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
All of your forums have at least one topic in them; that's great. It tends to make your forum look more active than it is, and it's just generally good to have at least a little bit of content in each forum. However, some forums have not had any new posts since even the 24th of January -- I would recommend that you make more topics or replies (it's not always easy to reply to some posts, but asking them a question or stating something that could start a discussion works well to get new posts and topics) yourself, or do active/active post exchanges, request packages (unless this goes against your ethics), ask some friends to help you out by being active if even for awhile.
(Scored 10/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
At the time I view this, you have four staff members (including yourself as the only administrator).
You seem to be active on the forum, but I can't say the same for your other staff members. None of your staff members even have an avatar! Here's the "last visited" statistics for your staff (excluding yourself):
Dec 26 2010 07:52 AM
Jan 28 2011 04:12 AM
Jan 05 2011 06:05 AM
Whew..how can they give support to members on the forum if they're not even visiting the forum daily? Staff members set an example on the forum, and if your staff is not active..how can you expect members to be active? Staff members should be visiting the forum daily to check new topics and reply; they should be active in the forum, welcome members, and join in on discussions. I'm not even going to bother pointing out their post counts, you can take what I said regarding them not visiting daily, and apply this to their post counts.
(Scored 3/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
I can't find any problems with your forums descriptions, the homepage, or on other pages. That includes the major threads (site announcements, ect.). Needless to say, that's great. It makes the forum and site itself look more professional and serious to serious buyers.
(Scored 20/20)
Total Score - 61
Final Remarks:
What was most liked about the website/forums:
The forum header, how there are no spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes important threads or on the website.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: How the favicons differ, how the advertisement widget stretches out the forum body.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Edit some of the design flaws, especially the widget I mentioned above.
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