Your Forum Review
First Impressions & Appearance
My first impression is, it's a nice well laid out, clean forum, this is what appeals to me as a first time visitor, nothing is over complicated. I like sites that make you want to learn more and this is exactly what you do as on my first visit I was like "right ok nice looking forum, I want to know more". I always say a guest has made up his or hers mind up within the first 30 seconds of visiting a forum, so you have to get it right and I feel on first impressions you have got it pretty much spot on.
The appearance is a professional one; the theme for the vb software is nicely done. My first thing I did not like is the top bar for your login boxes, I personally feel its a waste of space for just that, I would look at either removing it and putting the login in box lower down in with another navbar or if you like it there look at adding other things to it to better utilize the space, I'm not a fan of tool bars at all and it is a feature you either love or hate, what you have in that tool bar could easily be move and merged with the login bar in other words, killing to birds with one stone.
While I have never been a fan of side bars yours has the hide feature which for me is a big thumbs up as this way it allows a user the option to display or hide. The only other thing that niggled me is the welcome box, It is something I like if done right, what you have in it in terms of content is spot on, it's the look that lets it down, not a fan of dotted borders and it lowers the quality of the theme in my view, have a look at improving the look and matching it with the look of your forum categories. Also I would put it above you advert bar so its there for guest straight away without having to scroll past and advert.
(Score: 18/20)
Site Layout
Site Layout I like the site layout, the whole look of the site is of one that gives a clean and professional look, I like the menu bar its in a good position, however when i clicked on experience i could not access it, so for guest i would not display that link, also being pick here but I don't like how you sub -forums display a comma even if there is only one, if its possible look at ways of only getting the comma to display if there is 2 or more sub forums.
The forum layout is one I like as it's a generic layout and for regular forum users like myself, you get an instant familiarity about the place, which makes it easier to get posting straight away. I like your top 5 stats as well as it gives quick links to the latest and hottest topics and is a very under used feature on forums these days
(Scored 18/20)
Statistics and Activity Wow you are coming up on your 2nd birthday on the 26th May well done, it is great to be reviewing a site that has been around a while, so a big well done, however your stats are a massive let down, as soon as I saw the date, I was expecting a site to have triple if not more then your current post count, let me breaking it down for you;
You have been going 726 days give or take a day or more and in that time you have only managed 28,256. That averages out to 38.92 posts per day. That is a figure I would expect from a new forum not an establish one, the post count gives an average of 78 posts per user which is not a good figure, I’m sure you will agree. You have 4 staff between you you should all be dropping new content daily it takes 10-15 mins to do 25 posts, mutliply that by 4 and you have 100 posts in no time it is that simple.
Your forum has been going long enough now to warrant getting ride of dead accounts if they have not posted by now they never will so look at pruning zero posts counts for starters, also you need to look at why only 9 of you 326 users are only visiting, you are getting traffic as I noticed everytime I looking in the 2 days i spent reviewing your site you have plenty of visitors but not signed up, look at reasons why and ways to change that.
(Scored 5/20)
Staff Moderation
For your current levels of activity I feel you have too many moderators. Having one moderator for your sport section is not needed as its not active enough to warrant it, instead of have moderators for certain section you should have you and a maximum of 2 global moderators for the whole site.
While I feel you’re over staffed they all seem to be fairly active and in my 2 days of browsing your forum I never so any major issues or spam so well done on that side of things.
(Scored 13/20)
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
When it comes down to spelling and grammar I am very relaxed so long as a post is readable and is not littered with ton's of issues I don't mind too much as no one is perfect and the posts of yours I read were great not major typos were there and it gives your site a good level of professionalism. The only issue i found that I felt needed to be mentioned is the following forum description "Face it. Most of us are video game enthusiasts. You can discuss things happening in the Video Game industry here, or anything related to video games would be better like this Face it, most of us are video game enthusiasts. You can discuss things happening in the Video Game industry here, or anything relating to video games in general.
Professional wise yoru site has it spot on. I saw no bickering while I reviewed your site, any issues are dealt with quickly and you keep users up to date with any issues or news on the site so well done. My only concern was with regards to the hacking attempt you should never publicly alert people to possible security issues as it will make you a target, if its a an issue with a certain feature, just put; "if you are experiencing any issues with xxx feature please drop me a message". This then alert users to watch for any issues while also covering yourself and your site from attacks.
(Scored 18/20)
Total Score - 72/100
Final Remarks The look of your site is great, clean well presented and thought out, its great to see a site still going after 2 years, your score took a knocking due to your stats it is your Achilles heal if it wasn’t for that you would have gotten a better score then you did.
Strong Points Your dedication and the theme of your site, you have plenty of good features.
Things to Improve The activity is what is holding your site back its a nice forum but with better activity levels it could be a great forum, also have a look at the other things I mention, while you may not agree, it does give you an outsiders point of view.
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