Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - 19 (Out of 20)
I just love the banner. The left side of it is really well done and is also immediatly showing what the forum is about, with the space shuttles.. No, seriously it looks fantastic. The style continues through out the page and the matching imageset works really well with the banner!
The board index is quite long and it takes a few scrolls before I get to the bottom, then to realise there are 'minimize' buttons so you can collapse the categories, statistics and such. Then when I look at the footer, it's being made even longer by a list of links. You might want to consider putting these links side by side, so they don't take up too much space.
I would also like to point out that you've "Index | Forum" in the upper right navigation bar and just when I thought ah, you also have a site it just took me back to the forum. So try removing one of these to prevent confusion and it's just not necessary.
(Scored 19/20)
Site Layout - 16 (Out of 20)
You've 7 categories, which I feel are quite a lot, too much really. Some of the categories only got two forums, ie. the last two categories: "The Launch Pad" & "The Webmasters' Zone". Perhaps you can find a way to decrease this number, this will also decrease the length of the board index.
The rest of the layout looks awesome though, well organized in specific categories. So, kinda contridicting myself here, that's thought about. First category, sort of traditional with the announcements, feedback and introductions but eventhough it's not original, I still think it's the best to set it up. All other categories look fine aswell.
What did notice is that "Advertise your site" is in "Webmaster Launch Hangout & News", which doesn't seem to be the suited category. Perhaps you can find a more suitable category for this one, perhaps merge it together with the last two categories which are smaller.
When I navigate through the board the 'breadcrumbs' (the "Where am I" part) is getting quite long, this is because the site description is included in the forum name. I think it will look better when the description is pulled out of that part.
(Scored 16/20)
Statistics and Activity - 17 (Out of 20)
You've (little over) two thousand posts, but you've been open since 2008 (that's what your Forum Description suggests..) so that's not a tremendous amount of posts! However, you said you've been hacked a couple of months ago, so I take it that you also lost all your posts? Therefore I will not judge you on the amount of posts.
What I also noticed is that I'm the only one currently online! "Currently Active Users: 1 (0 members and 1 guest)". That's not a lot of activity I'm afraid. But then again, when I look at the most users ever online was 48, which was on 01-24-2010. So I guess I'm just at the wrong time on the board but all with all it's not stunning.
Moreover the "Who is Online" part, it currently leaves just an empty white space. I suppose that usually lists all online registered users, but perhaps you can make it so when nobody online it either collapses or says something along the lines of: "There are no registered users online". (Just like phpBB does I believe).
(Scored 17/20)
Staff Moderation - 18 (Out of 20)
As you already mentioned yourself, you're kinda overstaffed but you're probably working on it then I suppose. They're either need as they each do individual things or they were temporarely and you're cleaing things up.
The quality of posts are amazing, everything seems to be in order and being well moderated. That's a job well done. I will give you the benefit of the doubt on the amount of administrators.
(Scored 18/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - 18 (Out of 20)
All the posts are almost always spelt correctly, as I already mentioned earlier; of a really high standard. The Forum Descriptions are also spelt correctly in all cases, good capitalization and punctations. The few things that did get my attraction though: the Description of Site Updates could be rephraised better, as currently it's more a guide for the admins than for the users. Could be more of an explation in the sence of "Here you will find all updates, etc.."
In the description of MSN you've a double 'and', minor mistake and just wanted to point it out.
The descriptions of 'Other Languages' just doesn't read smooth. "If you need help or advice on XML, SHTML, DHTML, or anything else, or just want a discussion, do it here." I would suggest rephraising it somewhat, for example to "If you need help or advice on XML, SHTML, DHTML, etc. or just want a discussion, do it here." The double "or" is annoying.
(Scored 18/20)
Total Score - 88 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: This is an awesome forum, impressions are awesome. Few minor things I would suggest you would take a look at but I'm sure this will be a big forum soon!
What was most liked about the website/forums: The style (the impression it gave) and the professionalism.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: Parts of the lay out.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? You could!
You've got quite a few topics I'm interested in!
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