Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
I honestly have never seen a phpBB skin quite like yours, so you get points for orinality. It's refreshing to see something new. I like the skin too. It's very clean and professional. The images are nice and the color scheme works well. However the Post Topic and reply buttons like this one
look a bit weird to me. Why? I'm not sure. I think it's the font. It's not smooth like the rest of the skin. Just something to note. I also like how the mods you have installed such as cash and mood fit right in there, and don't look out of place. The only real complaint I have is the background. Having a huge black background isn't very visually appealing and just looks sort of "meh" to me. Oh, and the "Info" thing at the bottom of the index doesn't look right as a black font, on a dark blue background. I think white would suit it better. I also wanted to mention, I love your banner. It's extremely good looking. I would never touch it, it's perfect as it is.
(Scored 18/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
I see more and more forums doing it like yours where they have forums that are sort of like categories and have them then divided into subforums. I like that, makes the index look better. However, for a help forum, you sure do have a lot of general discussion boards. That's one thing a lot of sites make mistakes in in your department. They have more off-topic boards than they do on their actual subject. For example, I see 8 off-topic forums and 6 actual forums related to your subject. I understand on forums like yours they are needed since people may not always have problems to post about. Still though, I would watch how for you go with off-topic discussions, it deters attention away from the main subject of the forum. One layout choice I love is the skin having the statistic AJAX type thing. That's really cool. If I could make one suggestion, I would also get a favicon.
(Scored 16/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Your statistics aren't great for 3-to-4 month of being open. You don't have 1,000 posts yet which was disappointing, but your member count is fine. Member count means nothing though if none of your members are active. A lot of your forums only have 1 or 2 topics. That being said though, you do have some active members and forums, so it's not all negative here. I find it worrisome though your help forums have all of 12 topics total while your General Discussion forums have nearly 10 times that. One thing that is very good though is that most of your forums have posts from just a day or two though.
(Scored 12/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
I'm not exactly sure why you need so many support members on a run-of-the-mill forum. Your subject doesn't even deal with something I would consider needing support. That's intimidating to new members to see pretty much every active member be staff. (Now there are a few but aren't, but still.) Also one of your staff members just joined like 2 or 3 days ago and is already staff. Just seems strange to me. However, your staff does do a good job being active at least.
(Scored 11/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
Your spelling and grammar was excellent. I only noticed a tiny few errors, and really nobody would notice them, just wanted to point them out though.
"The off-topic forum to Discuss anything you like, within reason." should be, "The off-topic forum to discuss anything you like, within reason."
"Just seen a Movie? Want to talk about it? post here" should be, "Just seen a movie? Want to talk about it? Post here."
Also, "Forum Fun", "Humour", and "Debate" need periods at the end of their descriptions.
Those aren't big deals though. As far as professionalism, other than the fact you have too much staff, not much to complain about.
(Scored 18/20)
Total Score - 75 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: Your forum is good but people don't seem to be focusing on what your forum is about.
What was most liked about the website/forums: Skin and professionalism.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: Staff and layout.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? I would consider what I've said above.
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