Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
The second thing that I notice about the forum is the fact that the "Icon Recent Testimonials" widget and the "richest users" widget make the widgets go longer down than the forum itself -- which creates an odd effect that I'm not fond of. Yes, you can get rid of that by diminishing the widgets, but it's not like that by default and can irritate some users or potential users.
You should get a custom favicon. Having a default one like that doesn't look pleasing to the eye when someone bookmarks it - especially if they have other sites with that bookmark bookmarked. I would recommend that you get a premade professional favicon from freefavicon.com/ or get a custom one made (or, just make one yourself).
What was the first thing I noticed (you may be asking yourself) - it was the navigation bar. Maybe it's just because I have a thing for nice navigation bars, but I really like that navigation bar. Nice job with it -- it looks really nice with the banner and forum.
I think you have the forum statistics in between the forum title and the forum last topic title too big. That text is much larger than both the forum title text and the forum last topic title. I'm also pretty sure that it's not the same font -- but that's just a guess and it may be incorrect.
I believe that you should extend the forum width. On my tiny laptop, the forum looks really cramped and mushed together.
But, all-in-all I really like the look of the forum. The blue is a lovely color; not to dark as to make the text hard to read, but not to light as to be annoying and hurt peoples eyes. The theme is clean-cut and looks professional. I could not find a broken link in the navigation bar, nor any errors.
(Scored 15/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
I think that you should get rid of the "recent testimonials" widget altogether. You have a link to the testimonials in the navigation menu, so really the "recent testimonials" serves no purpose. Yes, it's viewed more -- but not all those views will actually read or care. If they actually do want to read testimonials, then they'll click the testimonial link in the navigation menu.
The forum layout itself is pretty standard; forum information and important yet not the topic of the forum forums, then the main content in the next category, then the sub content. That's not bad -- but it's nothing unique. The forums were easy to navigate and well organized in general -- even if the way they are organized lacks a certain unique factor. Nice job with that.
(Scored 17/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Every forum has at least a few posts in it -- that's great. The activity per forum is pretty even too. Even though your forum is relatively new, your activity looks OK. It looks like you've either got a small or developing community. If you keep doing whatever you're doing -- whether it's advertising on forums like this one or inviting your friends -- then you'll have a fine forum on your hand.
Although, in one forum "Mobile Reviews and Tutorials" there is only two topics. I would recommend that you make at least three more topics in that forum. See, the other forums have a lot more posts in them -- it can make your forum look less active than it really is if you have one forum that has such a low amount of posts. If you can't write the Mobile Reviews and Tutorials yourself, maybe a contest for the best submission or topic in that forum or something like that could bring topics/posts to it.
(Scored 16/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
From what I can see, your forum has two moderators and two administrators. That's an OK amount for the activity of the forum. Although I would recommend one more moderator. See, I doubt that at least one of you can be on constantly -- but with three moderators you may be able to achieve that.
Both of the administrators look fairly active, but both moderators have twenty posts or less (at the time I type this). Your moderators especially set an example for members, and if they're not active in the community, contributing posts and topics, then how can you expect members to be active in the community, contributing posts and topics? You can't. I would recommend that you would make (*or ask kindly) your moderators contribute more posts and topics. Even if they are on constantly, moderating, most people will just see the post count.
(Scored 12/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
After using validator.w3.org, I found quite a few errors on your site (not the spelling or grammar kind of error) -- I would recommend you fix them. This isn't as important as some other things on here though, bear that in mind.
In this forum description-
"Talk about your favorite mobile platform and device here.. everything from Android phones to iPhones and beyond."
I believe you should change the ".." to a "-" or put a period after "here" and capitalize the "E".
In this forum description-
"Wired or wireless, or even string and tin cans... discuss getting computers talking to each other here."
I believe you should change it to "Wires, wireless, or even string and tin cans -- discuss getting computers by talking to other users here."
Why don't you have descriptions in these sub forums; "MMORPG Gaming" and "PC Gaming"? There's a few other sub forums right next to those two sub forums in that forum and they have descriptions. It looks odd for just those two to
not have descriptions. I would recommend that you get those two sub forums descriptions.
Why do none of these sub forums have descriptions -
http://forums.zapstech.net/index.php?/f ... g-systems/ ? Every other forum on the board (excluding the two I mentioned above) have descriptions. Yes, those forums could be self explanatory and could be only sub forums (although the other sub forums have descriptions..) -- but with every other forum having a forum description, it makes the forum look kind of sloppy and unsymmetrical.
Other than those things I mentioned, I really couldn't find any grammatical errors or spelling errors on the forum index. Nice job on that.
(Scored 13/20)
Total Score - 73
Final Remarks:
What was most liked about the website/forums: The navigation bar, the look.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: The stretching widgets.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? Edit the widgets, make some of the changes I mentioned.
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