Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance - (Out of 20)
Usually I'm not a big fan of vBulletin skins, but your skin is actually quite nice. I like it's simply and glossy look, and the icons just flow very nicely. Your logo looks perfect for the skin. What also makes it good is that it doesn't look like vBulletin, so it's a lot more unique. I did notice a few bad things though. One of your affiliate images is busted, it has the "Exceeded Bandwidth" message on it. Another thing is the post-view page. Everything is so...dark. I mean there is almost no formatting between the posts and the post themselves are huge. There could be some more light elements in there to balance it out. Other than those two things though I liked your forum's appearance. (By the way, I'm an IPB person, I love the fact you have an IPBPro skin.
😛)
(Scored 17/20)
Site Layout - (Out of 20)
Your layout is great. I love the Facebook, MSN, etc. icons under posts so that people can connect with each other. The activity and level meters are unique and cool (though it isn't really apparent how they're calculated.). The mood system looked nice and fit in well in posts. However, images like this one
sometimes overlapped the text above it which isn't good. That's brings me to another thing. You have all sorts of info on people's posts but that stretches the posts out. As I mentioned in the above section the posts, no matter what length are very large, and that gets annoying to read. Maybe elimate a few elements from post-view and make stricter avatar size limits. (Because some avatars were quite large for a forum.) Your chatbox wasn't annoying and apparent which is good but sometimes it would look really odd because text would go off the place it's supposed to be and the chatbox looks tiny since the font in it is so small. As far as the physical layout of your forum, I have no complaints except I'm not quite sure why the trash bin is publicly visible. Shouldn't that be staff only?
(Scored 15/20)
Statistics and Activity - (Out of 20)
Oh my, you are doing AWESOME for a forum your age. Seriously, I have no complaints. You have almost 270 members and 16K+ posts in a matter of months. Whatever you're doing, keep it up. All of your forums have a good amount of posts in them, and at this rate, your forum will be VERY successful. Awesome job!
(Scored 20/20)
Staff Moderation - (Out of 20)
I understand your forum is big, but golly you have a lot of staff. Three admins and 5 mods is a bit much. However, all your staff is active and seems to do a good job. My suggestion is to not hire anymore for a while though. You don't want to get too much staff because than can intimidate new members. Other than being slightly overstaffed, you're fine. By the way, you may or have one of your admins fix on the IPBPro skin if you click the banner to go to the index you get an error message.
(Scored 18/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism - (Out of 20)
Your spelling and grammar was generally good but there were a few problems.
"News, updates, and other important changes and promotions will be shared within" should be, "News, updates, and other important changes and promotions will be shared within."
"Have a question or concern? Well we are here to help and if you have a comment about the site then lets hear it. We're not shy when being criticized or congratulated, so don't be afraid to voice your true opinion." should be, "Have a question or concern? Well we are here to help. If you have a comment about the site, then let's hear it. We're not shy when being criticized or congratulated, so don't be afraid to voice your true opinion."
"Have an opinion on some topic, whether it be the creation of the world or the evolution of Earth's creatures. Put on them thinking caps, and get the thinking gears turning and hope your fingers can keep up with the thoughts flashing through your mind." should be, "
Have an opinion on some topic, whether it be the creation of the world, or the evolution of Earth's creatures? Put on them thinking caps, and get the thinking gears turning, and hope your fingers can keep up with the thoughts flashing through your mind."
I'm not gonna list every error, those were the most noticeable. Your professionalism is fine.
(Scored 15/20)
Total Score - 85 (Out of 100)
Final Remarks: Your forum is doing awesome.
What was most liked about the website/forums: The activity, the skins.
What was disliked most about the website/forums: Spelling.
How could I get you (The Reviewer) to join my website? There's nothing that would keep people from joining.
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