[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif][size=large]One Piece Forums[/size]
[size=xx-small]Full Review by Atrox[/size][/font][/size]
[size=small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Scoring:[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif] [/font][/size][size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]First Impressions & Appearance – ([size=medium]9[/size] out of 20)[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]When I first hit the forum, I was welcomed by a rather pretty logo which suits the forum's genre perfectly. However, my eyes were then drawn to the background that the logo sits on - one that is becoming more and more common. It was the MyBB theme, "Carbon". I was quite sad because this just makes the forum look like any other regular forum. I think that you'd be better off picking out another theme that isn't so commonly used on MyBB forums, or go visit a theme store such as Audentio and pick up one of their premium themes if you're willing to invest. This way, visitors will have something fresh to look at rather than a theme that is overused in my opinion, it may be this change that gives you the edge and draws them into the community. Also, you have the ugly "Forum Stats" block that sits above the rest of the forums and wrecks the whole page, you can get a much nicer sidebar plugin that shows the latest threads and looks prettier. You should also think about swapping the shadowed usernames that make the text harder to read and replace it with a sparkling username.[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif] [/font][/size][size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Site Layout – ([size=medium]8[/size] out of 20)[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Starting from the top, and gradually scanning through the forum until I hit the bottom. That's the best way to do it. Your logo is in a suitable place and doesn't need to be moved at all, your navigation bar includes the 6 logical default links and help the members to get around the forum easily and to the right of the navigation bar you have social networking links that are actually pointless, as they do nothing. As I scroll down, I hit a brick wall also known as the "Forum Stats" block which I have previously picked up on and I seriously suggest that you remove and put in the sidebar version of it. As I scroll down, you have the "Community" category with the Announcements, Suggestions and Feedback and the Introduction forums, all of this making sense so far. Next, you have the "One Piece" category with rather generic forums inside, they all start with "One piece" and end with "discussions". Personally, I think you need to change that up a bit, so it doesn't look so boring and generic. The next category "Otaku sekai" looks perfectly fine to me. Finally, you have the "One piece forum community" category that actually contains all of the Off-Topic forums (A bit too many if you ask me, you need to start using sub-forums and merge some forums together). I think that this category isn't named correctly as this is not a part of the OPF community really, this is off-topic. You should probably name is "Off-Topic" so that people don't think you're a General Discussion community rather than an Anime forum. [/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif] [/font][/size][size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Statistics and Activity – ([size=medium]7[/size] out of 20)[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]I don't think your activity rates are the best, mainly because whenever I hover over that little clock to display the last post date they're either a few days ago or a few weeks ago. Which to me, shows that you don't have many active members that are posting around the forums and you may not be making an effort to create content every now and then to make the forum look more active. Also, your activity rates don't really match up with your statistics very well because although you have 17583 posts and 807 threads you have 127 members and a lot of them aren't active and helping out. It may be that your forum didn't interest them enough for them to stay.[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif] [/font][/size][size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Content – ([size=medium]5[/size] out of 20)[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Honestly, I'm not too impressed with the content of your forum. If you're an Anime forum, you'd expect most of the members to be signing up to post in the anime categories/forums, right? Wrong. For your "One Piece" category, per forum, you average 179 posts and for threads, 19. For the "Otaku sekai" category you average 258 posts and 21 threads. For your final "One piece forum community" you average 1076 (according to mean average) and 29 threads. Now, if you ask me, if your Off-Topic category is averaging more posts and threads than your On-Topic categories you're not doing too well. Along with that, your forum looks rather spammy with 41.4% of your posts coming from forum games. This is damage that is already done, unless you want to delete those posts. The Content of your forum is something that you will need to concentrate on. [/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif] [/font][/size][size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – ([size=medium]12[/size] out of 20)[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]I don't really have much to say about this category, sorry to say. You haven't made many mistakes when it comes to Spelling/Grammar, but in your announcements forum description the "
" isn't really the most professional thing to have there. Also, "One piece--Welcome to the pirate World!", the two hyphens don't look the best in the world. [/font][/size]
[size=xx-small]Full Review by Atrox[/size][/font][/size]
[size=small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Scoring:[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]When I first hit the forum, I was welcomed by a rather pretty logo which suits the forum's genre perfectly. However, my eyes were then drawn to the background that the logo sits on - one that is becoming more and more common. It was the MyBB theme, "Carbon". I was quite sad because this just makes the forum look like any other regular forum. I think that you'd be better off picking out another theme that isn't so commonly used on MyBB forums, or go visit a theme store such as Audentio and pick up one of their premium themes if you're willing to invest. This way, visitors will have something fresh to look at rather than a theme that is overused in my opinion, it may be this change that gives you the edge and draws them into the community. Also, you have the ugly "Forum Stats" block that sits above the rest of the forums and wrecks the whole page, you can get a much nicer sidebar plugin that shows the latest threads and looks prettier. You should also think about swapping the shadowed usernames that make the text harder to read and replace it with a sparkling username.[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Starting from the top, and gradually scanning through the forum until I hit the bottom. That's the best way to do it. Your logo is in a suitable place and doesn't need to be moved at all, your navigation bar includes the 6 logical default links and help the members to get around the forum easily and to the right of the navigation bar you have social networking links that are actually pointless, as they do nothing. As I scroll down, I hit a brick wall also known as the "Forum Stats" block which I have previously picked up on and I seriously suggest that you remove and put in the sidebar version of it. As I scroll down, you have the "Community" category with the Announcements, Suggestions and Feedback and the Introduction forums, all of this making sense so far. Next, you have the "One Piece" category with rather generic forums inside, they all start with "One piece" and end with "discussions". Personally, I think you need to change that up a bit, so it doesn't look so boring and generic. The next category "Otaku sekai" looks perfectly fine to me. Finally, you have the "One piece forum community" category that actually contains all of the Off-Topic forums (A bit too many if you ask me, you need to start using sub-forums and merge some forums together). I think that this category isn't named correctly as this is not a part of the OPF community really, this is off-topic. You should probably name is "Off-Topic" so that people don't think you're a General Discussion community rather than an Anime forum. [/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]I don't think your activity rates are the best, mainly because whenever I hover over that little clock to display the last post date they're either a few days ago or a few weeks ago. Which to me, shows that you don't have many active members that are posting around the forums and you may not be making an effort to create content every now and then to make the forum look more active. Also, your activity rates don't really match up with your statistics very well because although you have 17583 posts and 807 threads you have 127 members and a lot of them aren't active and helping out. It may be that your forum didn't interest them enough for them to stay.[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Honestly, I'm not too impressed with the content of your forum. If you're an Anime forum, you'd expect most of the members to be signing up to post in the anime categories/forums, right? Wrong. For your "One Piece" category, per forum, you average 179 posts and for threads, 19. For the "Otaku sekai" category you average 258 posts and 21 threads. For your final "One piece forum community" you average 1076 (according to mean average) and 29 threads. Now, if you ask me, if your Off-Topic category is averaging more posts and threads than your On-Topic categories you're not doing too well. Along with that, your forum looks rather spammy with 41.4% of your posts coming from forum games. This is damage that is already done, unless you want to delete those posts. The Content of your forum is something that you will need to concentrate on. [/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]I don't really have much to say about this category, sorry to say. You haven't made many mistakes when it comes to Spelling/Grammar, but in your announcements forum description the "
" isn't really the most professional thing to have there. Also, "One piece--Welcome to the pirate World!", the two hyphens don't look the best in the world. [/font][/size][size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif][size=medium]Total Score - ([/size][size=large]41[/size][size=medium] out of 100)[/size][/font][/size][/align]
[size=small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Final Remarks:[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Overall, I think that you need to remove that Stats block that completely wrecks the first impressions for me and replace it with the much nicer sidebar version. You may also want to invest in a theme that is not so commonly used, or scour the internet for a theme that you don't have to pay for, and whilst still looking good isn't as overused as the Carbon theme. The Content part of your forum needs to be sorted out and you must encourage posting in the on-topic areas rather than the off-topic areas. Also, the off-topic area needs to be actually called the "Off-Topic" area or something along those lines and needs a bit of modification, forums need to be merged and some of the forums need to become sub-forums. [/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif] [/font][/size][size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Strengths:[/font][/size][size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif] [/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif] [/font][/size][size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Weaknesses:[/font][/size]
[size=small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Final Remarks:[/font][/size]
[size=x-small][font=Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]Overall, I think that you need to remove that Stats block that completely wrecks the first impressions for me and replace it with the much nicer sidebar version. You may also want to invest in a theme that is not so commonly used, or scour the internet for a theme that you don't have to pay for, and whilst still looking good isn't as overused as the Carbon theme. The Content part of your forum needs to be sorted out and you must encourage posting in the on-topic areas rather than the off-topic areas. Also, the off-topic area needs to be actually called the "Off-Topic" area or something along those lines and needs a bit of modification, forums need to be merged and some of the forums need to become sub-forums. [/font][/size]
- Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism
- Content- Statistics and Activity
