Xbox Live Fan
Full Review by Twisted Fairytale
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (13 out of 20)
Apart from my computer loading the background image rather slowly, I like the theme you have going on here. The greens obviously match the green and orange scheme of Xbox Live, and you used a tad bit of orange in your banner. On the topic of your banner, it is very well made and it seems to set the tone for the rest of the board. What I mean by this is that it takes up the whole space allotted physically and sets the physical dimensions of the forum, but it also displays characters from Xbox games while featuring a specific font that, for some reason, reminds me of Xbox. In my opinion, this ties your board into the subject matter at hand very well.
I also enjoy the fluidity of the forum, as every image seems to match. Your section images seem to fit into the white index. Which seems like an odd choice since many gaming forums are dark themed; but going white sets you out! I think it works for you in the end, simply because it's a personal and special feel that only your board has.
I would like to take a quick second to talk about your member ranks. They are apparently custom, and fit very well into your board, but I see a few problems with them and your staff ranks. First of all, your staff ranks don't seem to follow the same style as your member ranks, which decreases the appearance of post pages. Apart from not following the same style, they also do not meet the same quality of style that your member ranks do. Let me put them side by side here...
Looking at the Administrator rank first, the red text clashes with the green background to create a hard-to-read affect on the eyes. You hit the nail on the head with the member rank by keeping it somewhat the same color with dark text outlines. That is almost perfect for a member rank. I also noticed your staff signature bars. These are also of lower quality than your member ranks. It honestly looks like you had a professional make one set, then not hire the same professional to finish your graphics. This creates a division of quality on your website that you do not want. If you were to reinvent your lower quality graphics (staff ranks, staff signature bars) to match that of your higher quality graphics (member rank, banner), you would be much better off!
Overall, the First Impressions of your forum are better than most. I can tell you have a special theme that matches the subject of your forum and it works out very well for you. The index is fluid and unique. You have a well placed news bar at the top and a menu bar at the bottom, both of which are out of the way to the normal user. If you would work on revamping your staff ranks and signature bars to match your user ranks, you would be taking a step in the right direction. To wrap up appearance, it is unique, which to me means the world when I want to register on a forum.
Site Layout – (12 out of 20)
Let's begin at the main index at the very top... There is a low profile, scrolling news bar that delivers news to users from every page they are on. Now, this can be productive, or it could be intrusive. A news bar will shower the whole board with news that every member will definitely see, even if they don't visit often. However, for your frequent contributors, they will view the same news headlines hundreds of times, and it will simply become intrusive and annoying for them. In the end, I believe it serves more hassle than information, especially to your frequent members.
Moving down, we come to the main menu bar... It's low profile, so that's always a plus. The one menu item I would turn attention to is the XLF Cash. I'm not sure exactly how often a member would use this feature, especially from the Index. I would consider moving this item to the User Control Panel, just to keep the forum clean.
Alright now on to the index itself. Something that I found distracting were the Subforums under "Game Talk" visible on the Index. Honestly, I wouldn't even have use for these subforums, but you have content in just about every one of them, so you have pulled it off! My suggestion would be to hide these from the index because it seems to clutter the page by creating a section that is larger than normal. Now... I just thought about this... If you were to keep the subforums there, it could turn out okay because it takes attention away from the rest of the forums and puts attention on the most important forum. Either way, it clutters the index a bit, but that clutter could be productive.
Below the index, the Statistics are just as you would find on any board. Who is Online, Who was here?, and Birthdays... You have some extra modules including XLF Cash Statistics, and Anniversary List. In my opinion, theses extra modules clutter the bottom of your forum, but they can also provide extra information. In the XLF Cash Statistics specifically, these stats can already be found somewhere else, so why add them to the bottom of the forum, even if they are minimized by default? I don't think there is a reason...
Overall, the layout of Xbox Live Fan is decent. There are flaws that should be addressed such as the news bar at the top and the extra modules towards the bottom of the index. The rest of your index seems to be organized fairly well with appropriate forums in the correct categories, having just enough and not too much.
Statistics and Activity – (09 out of 20)
To begin with your statistics.. Your board has been online for 925 days, that is over two years and some. Good job pushing through that long! What I don't understand though, is how you have 30 posts per day, with the activity you have now. I'll get back to that in a minute though. There is not much to say, other than congradulations on getting 28,000+ posts! Many forums never hit that many.
Now on to your activity... The first thing I want to point out is that you have the board to display people online in the last 168 hours. In days, 168 hours is 7 days. Honestly, the longest I would go is 48 hours, ideally 24. I can tell you're trying to make your forum look more active with more names at the bottom, but once I read the "168 hours," I lost a little respect. I felt like I was being deceived, and you do not want a member to feel that way. In addition, your activity stats show 1291 members online in the last week, but there are only 19 registered users in that number... The rest are guests. You are receiving a lot of pings, but you need to find a way to draw them in.
Something else: At first appearance, your board looked very professional and active, but when I take a second to look at the individual forums, I notice that all of the boards have semi-recent posts. However, when explored, those semi recent posts cover up large gaps in activity. Some forums don't have any posts between October and December. Even those with newer posts are filled to the brim with older posts. I'm not sure exactly what happened to your board between October and December, but you definitely do not have the activity any more. What activity they do have is coming from you, your staff, and a hand-full of active members or posting packages.
Honestly, your activity is hanging on the brink of death. I don't know what to say to get it back up, but you have a beautiful forum and that would go to waste without members. Your statistics are mildly deceiving, and that prevents potential members from giving your site a second thought. I get how we can sometimes let our forums activity fall, then try to save it. You're doing the best you can, I bet!
Content – (10 out of 20)
Xbox Live Fan offers a variety of discussion focused on its true subject. There are twenty three (23) forums focused on Xbox and the games offered on the console. Good job staying true to your subject! However, you may be
too true to your subject here. There are so many forums for specific games that don't have the activity one would desire anymore. A forum can kill itself with too much space, as in, spreading out too much. I would consider which games are still hot and which games are still worth posting about, and perhaps consolidate the rest. If I were ever to do a gaming forum, I would consider genres instead of of specific games to categorize and sort discussions. Even with the massive amount of space for users to post on just about anything Xbox, you provide a few Off Topic forums, which is crucial for almost any forum.
I would also like to talk about your Xbox Achievement Lists. These take a lot of work, and they provide users a reason to return to your forum. In a practical tone, I'm not sure exactly how much they help activity on your forum or how many users actually use them as a resource. I would consider re-thinking these achievement lists, possibly run a poll to see how many users actually refer to them, and act accordingly. Keep in mind the effort put into them that could be put somewhere else.
Your forum also posts game reviews of "all of the Xbox & Kinect games on the market to date!" First off, this is a very strong statement. When I read this, the first thing I think is, "well, how about xxxx?" A better description would be more general, and not have users expect more than what is there. "Reviews from some of the hottest games," would be better. The reviews themselves seem short and lack meat on the bones. I commend you for using a set style and criteria, but your reviewers need a little kick on the butt for quality. The statements made in your reviews are short and to the point, but leave me with questions in the end.
Xbox Live Fan offers a diverse amount of content and places for discussion. Some content is not exactly beneficial to the forum, and could possibly have its effort used somewhere else. There are also many places where members may post just about anything on their mind about Xbox. In essence, there may be too many. I would like to see some Xbox One discussion boards with your forum, if you decide to continue it. I believe that staying in the game includes upgrading with the newest stuff.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (10 out of 20)
Alright, the one problem that I have noticed throughout the board is your continuous usage of "XLF" and your sentence structure of each forum's description. Let's begin with your repetition of "XLF." On the index itself, you have the word "XLF" seventeen (17) times, not counting those hidden in the "XLF" Cash tab on the menu. Coming from a "Professionalism" perspective, this is unacceptable. Just think: the user already knows where he/she is by the banner, you needn't to repeat it every sentence.
Next, I want to take a second and tell you a few interesting things about your forum descriptions. You say "talk about" in every single forum description under "XLF Discussions." You also say "discuss" in every game forum's description. This is like, major repetition there, and a major no-no. Using the same descriptions for just about all of your important forums shows that someone didn't want to put in the effort to write all unique descriptions. Bleh... These are due for a re-write.
Anyway, going into a few of the staff's posts, I see some grammatical errors in official news entries. Nothing super horrible stands out to me, but there are the repeated lowercase "i's" and run-on sentences. Your Game Reviews and their authors seem to have/use decent grammar as well (although, I thought Battlefield 4 could have 1-64 players, not 1-4?).
The theme of your forum really screams professional, as well. I'm not sure if I mentioned that yet or not. The theme is simple and clean cut to provide access to what your users need, and an easy way to find it. It's also very easy on the eyes. The theme is also very immersive with the subject matter.
I do apologize for the shortness of this section, there is not much to say. In conclusion though, Xbox Live Fan just looks very professional. I like how you made a little joke in your banner, saying "Kinect" instead of Connect. Very funny, and I think it adds a personality to your forum, per se. Sorry, that was random. Xbox Live Fan looks very professional, and apart from grammar mistakes found in official news posts, your forum descriptions, and some rules, it is. Well, to the point a gaming forum can be professional that is.
Total Score - (54 out of 100)
Final Remarks:
I remember registering for your site awhile back under a different name and I enjoyed what I found there. You have a huge forum, with a lot of potential, but for some reason, you just don't have the activity. I can't explain the gap in activity from October and December, but I feel as if it had something to do with your current lack thereof. Xbox Live Fan has a great theme, some beautiful images, and a lot of tender loving care. My advice to you about your forum: don't give it up. You've got a lot of work that can go into it, but it's one of the forums that I know of that has some promise. Keep it up, and may the force be with you!
Strengths:
- - The beautiful theme!
- Some special features, such as game reviews
Weaknesses:
- - Large lack of activity
- Grammar mistakes in official forum posts, as well as forum descriptions
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