The Forum Review

[Fred100]

SportsChat

Congratulations! Your forum review has been completed. The forum review will hold many tips, suggestions, comments, and feedback that are convenient and voluntary for your forum. Here is your forum review:

Generalities

1. First Impressions (Score: 12/20):
   Your first impression is promising, there being a nice blue color scheme and a banner to match it. It’s nice that you have “Forum Friends” right up near the top of the site, which encourages guests to make an affiliation with your forum. However, the advertisements are visible for both user and guest, which is unappealing to many. This can be fixed by doing the following:
   Access the Administration Panel > Click on the General Tab > Under “Forum”, click “Configuration > Find “Text ads activation (underlined)” > Select No > Save changes.
   Another problem is the large amount of categories and forums (which will be reviewed later) located on the forum index. This creates and overload of forums for a guest to view before registering, and can throw off the decisions of some.
   
   
2. Categories & Forums (Score: 5/10):
   I have counted a total of 23 forums right on the forum index, which is quite a lot for a single page. You can split these forums up into broader categories, or subsections, so that they don’t all appear in the forum index. The first step would be to move the forums in the “Community” category to the “Sports Chat” category. Then create a new forum, named “Community”, and attach the forums that used to be under the category into the new forum. You can repeat this step with several other forums aswell.
   Another problem with the forums is that none have any description. It is essential to have a description for each forum so that new members will know what to post, and so that less confusion may occur.
   

Generalities total :: 17/30


Forum Style

1. Major Graphics (Score: 6/10):
   
   Banner: (2/5)
   Positive: The banner has a color scheme that goes great with the rest of the forum. It represents several sports in it, which are Soccer, Football (American), and Golf. It is nice that the letter “O” in “Sports” is multi-purposeful, as it displays both the character and the golf ball. The use of reflection is a nice way to place the figures (people) without having them jut out from the borders. It even makes the banner a banner, rather than just a small, unnoticeable logo.
   Negative: The reflection has some downsides, too, just like many other things in forums. The opacity is too high – reflections generally should be in low opacity, so they don’t distract the viewer from the main focus. Another problem with the banner is the gloss; there are two bars of it, one above and one below the letters “P-S”. The problem with that is they don’t end on the same spot - the bottom bar stretches about .5 centimeters longer than the top – and neither covers the first letter “S”.
   Navigation Bar: (4/5)
   It’s nice that the navbar has almost the same width as the banner. The colors go great with that of the forum, and it is not too flashy or distractive. The gloss looks nice, too, but like the reflection, the opacity should be lowered, too.
   
   
2. Images & Icons (Score: 2/10):
   The forum icons are one of the big downsides of the forum. Almost all of them are all different sizes, and some have even been used several times. If you are in need of forum icons, and it appears you are, try visiting < www.iconarchive.com > for new icons. There should be plenty of sports icons to choose from. Other than the forum icons, the icons that indicate replies could also be fixed. Differentiated colors aren’t always the best way for indicators; maybe you could switch the icons to, perhaps: 1. for no new replies – a baseball glove. 2. New reply – a baseball glove with a ball in it. 3. Locked – A baseball glove with a lock in it.
   
3. Forum Layout & Colour Scheme (Score: 8/10):
   Your forum has a nice cool-blue and black color scheme, one appropriate for this type of forum. However, the layout could be improved by removing the un-needed widgets, as they are unrelated to the topic, and centering the forums.
   

Forum Style total :: 16/30

Usergroups

1. Population of Groups (Score: 10/10):
   The groups are all populated perfectly for a forum of your size, with no more than 2 members in each group.
   
2. Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 9/10):
   There are no un-needed user groups here, and all the staff groups are orderly and understandable.
   
   

Usergroups :: 19/20


Forum Activity

1. Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 8/10):
   

   Our users have posted a total of 2300 messages
   We have 35 registered users
   The newest registered user is Syfte

   With 35 users and 2300 posts, the average “PPM” (Post-Per-Member) count is 92, which is great for a growing forum. This shows potential for activity in the future.
   
2. Users Active (Score: 7/10):
   

   Members connected during last 96 hours : Bartel, Betts, BluePepsi, Buckets007, Djcricket2009, Fred100, Jakey, mikefx, Mystic_gohan, OzCorka, Pav_001, sandeep30, Sumukhasai, Syfte, vincaocao

   15 of your 35 users are on the online list, which is about ½ of your total users – great job. However, this displays the users for the past 96 hours, which is not a great indicator of your forum’s logged in user count. I suggest lowering it down for a more accurate statistic.
   
   

Forum Activity total :: 15 /20

Overall Marking: 67/100
You have passed!

What could be done to improve your forum: Get icons for all of the forums, and write descriptions for them, too.

The best thing I like about your forum: The activity








The Review which you just saw was done by Syfte

[Sumukhasai]

Great job SC

[Bartel]

Well done Fred, well done Jakey, well done members!

[Buckets007]

I'm sorry, i'm not trying to pick a fight but while having a forum with 2300 posts and a total of 35 members (36 members and 2527 posts at last check) Our top 10 posters take 2199 of those. That is an astounding 87% !! so when you look at it like that, Most registered people do not visit and post.

In the last 4 days we have had roughly half of users online at some point. again sounds good but where are half of those people's posts when they come online? It's pathetic.

[CJCorka]

Great job SC

[Fred100]

I'm sorry, i'm not trying to pick a fight but while having a forum with 2300 posts and a total of 35 members (36 members and 2527 posts at last check) Our top 10 posters take 2199 of those. That is an astounding 87% !! so when you look at it like that, Most registered people do not visit and post.

In the last 4 days we have had roughly half of users online at some point. again sounds good but where are half of those people's posts when they come online? It's pathetic.

Yeah , I said Jakey the same before asking for a review , that the forum isn't big yet , and there was no need to ask for a review yet.
And the Reviewer POV is different the way other people think , reviewers are supposed to think about the forum through the eyes of a member , and through the eyes of a guest too.

[Saiyan Prince]

Well done SC.

Well done every one!

[Bartel]

I'm sorry, i'm not trying to pick a fight but while having a forum with 2300 posts and a total of 35 members (36 members and 2527 posts at last check) Our top 10 posters take 2199 of those. That is an astounding 87% !! so when you look at it like that, Most registered people do not visit and post.

In the last 4 days we have had roughly half of users online at some point. again sounds good but where are half of those people's posts when they come online? It's pathetic.

You have a good point.

But like Fred said, it's still small, I'm sure when it gets bigger people will post activley.

[Saiyan Prince]

Yup, but for now just keep trying to post a bit.

[madman]

It was better than I thought

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