I can make this review if you want me to.

Cool, that'd be great. :]

Okay, in 2 hours it'll be ready!

Sorry but I'm very busy and I'll not be able to do it today. Sorry!!

No worries, Nacho! I know how that goes. Take whatever time you need!

i can do this for you know, if you would like.

Oh, okay, sure, so long as Nacho doesn't mind.

ok, i'm starting it now!, i'll pm you if its done.


Generalities

1. First Impressions (Score:17/20):When i first opened your forum, i saw your home page and really relates to the forum's main subject, a really scary subject. but when i opened your forum, it was all about advanced role-playing,i also don't think that your forum's title is related but no need to change it, still nice being unique. First, i think that your homepage doesn't make sense, it is because it just had some pictures of wicked trees and foggy surroundings. Have a Welcome message on it and add some more info about your forum there. First impression is not bad
   
   
2. Categories & Forums (Score:7/10):there is a wrong positioning of categories on your forum. the 'out of character' category should be placed on the last part of your forum as it is not related to the main subject of your forum(just for other discussion) and the 'in character' category should be placed on the 2nd portion of your forum, i would also suggest you to seperate the suggestion forum to the News and Announcements because it will make your forum not well organized. Get it fixed. Nice set and amount of forums that makes your forum active.
   

Generalities total:24/30

Forum Style

1. Banner & Navigation Bar (Score:9/10):
   Banner-Banner is good, neat and fits with your forum, i would suggest you to move it up to supply the remaining space on the top part of your forum
   
   Navigation Bar-(home,faq,register,log-in) navigation bars are good and neat, (new topic, Post reply/new reply) navigation bars also fits with your forum. Nice!
   
   
2. Forum Layout & Color Scheme (Score:10/10):Your forum's color which are black and gray really fits with the main subject of your forum. They look nice and no need to be changed.
   
   
3. Images & Icons (Score:10/10):'new posts, no new posts, forum is locked' icons are good, who's online icon is also good!, topic icons also partners with the other images and icons. nice
   

Style total:29/30

Population & Groups

1. Staff Population (Score:10/10):In total, you have 2 admins, Nice having 2, but if you think the forum is harder to control, you can hire 1 more.(but the one you could trust), you have 2 global moderators, still nice having 2 because you had other moderation groups, you have 2 ooc(out of character forum moderators) and 2 Ic(in charcater forum moderators),so in total, you had 6 moderators in total, nice amount for an active forum!, I didn't include the other groups because i thik they are not considered as staff status
   
   
2. Staff Groups / User Groups (Score:8/10): Nice amount of usergroups, but i will also suggest you to hide the member of the month group to save more space. almost all of the groups has sense
   
   advice about the member of the month: just i said above, you can hide the member of the month group but you can make a signature for who's the member of the month, it is more noticable. Just my advice, its your decision
   

Usergroup total:18/20

Forum Activity

1. Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score:10/10):In total, your forum members has posted a total of 32,040 for 359 members, that's so awesome for just hundred of members, you would usually get more posts when you reached 1000 plus members, i've seen several members posted 1000 posts or more and there are always new posts everyday. Congrats!
   
   
2. Users Active (Score:9/10):According to the forum statistics, there are 22 users being most online, but when i saw the members being connected last 24 hours, they are 60 plus, your forum as well as the members is active, i'd also seen some members online when i was reviewing your forum. About the inactive members, send them weekly letters about the latest updates on your forum.
   

Activity total:19/20



What could be done to improve your forum:Follow what i suggested above



Would you like to share your review on your forum or with your friends? Grab the code:

Code:

[center][b][size=18][font=Century Gothic][color=teal]Your Forum Review[/color][/font][/b][/size]
FOG: Footsteps of Ghosts[/center]
[b][color=blue]Generalities[/color][/b]

[list=1]
[*][b]First Impressions (Score:17/20):[/b]When i first opened your forum, i saw your home page and really relates to the forum's main subject, a really scary subject. but when i opened your forum, it was all about advanced role-playing,i also don't think that your forum's title is related but no need to change it, still nice being unique. First, i think that your homepage doesn't make sense, it is because it just had some pictures of wicked trees and foggy surroundings. Have a Welcome message on it and add some more info about your forum there. First impression is not bad

[*][b]Categories & Forums (Score:7/10):[/b]there is a wrong positioning of categories on your forum. the 'out of character' category should be placed on the last part of your forum as it is not related to the main subject of your forum(just for other discussion) and the 'in character' category should be placed on the 2nd portion of your forum, i would also suggest you to seperate the suggestion forum to the News and Announcements because it will make your forum not well organized. Get it fixed. Nice set and amount of forums that makes your forum active.
[/list]

[color=green]Generalities total:24/30[/color]

[b][color=blue]Forum Style[/color][/b]

[list=1]
[*][b]Banner & Navigation Bar (Score:9/10):[/b]
[size=11][u][b]Banner[/b][/u][/size]-Banner is good, neat and fits with your forum, i would suggest you to move it up to supply the reaming space on the top part of your forum but take care of the foggy thing on your banner

[size=11][u][b]Navigation Bar[/b][/u][/size]-(home,faq,register,log-in) navigation bars are good and neat, (new topic, Post reply/new reply) navigation bars also fits with your forum. Nice!

[*][b]Forum Layout & Color Scheme (Score:10/10):[/b]Your forum's color which are black and gray really fits with the main subject of your forum. They look nice and no need to be changed.

[*][b]Images & Icons (Score:10/10):[/b]'new posts, no new posts, forum is locked' icons are good, who's online icon is also good!, topic icons also partners with the other images and icons. nice
[/list]

[color=green]Style total:29/30[/color]

[b][color=blue]Population & Groups[/color][/b]

[list=1]
[*][b]Staff Population (Score:10/10):[/b]In total, you have 2 admins, Nice having 2, but if you think the forum is harder to control, you can hire 1 more.(but the one you could trust), you have 2 global moderators, still nice having 2 because you had other moderation groups, you have 2 ooc(out of character forum moderators) and 2 Ic(in charcater forum moderators),so in total, you had 6 moderators in total, nice amount for an active forum!, I didn't include the other groups because i thik they are not considered as staff status

[*][b]Staff Groups / User Groups (Score:9/10):[/b] Nice amount of usergroups, but i will also suggest you to hide/remove the member of the month group to save more space. almost all of the groups has sense

advice about the member of the month: just i said above, you can hide the member of the month group but you can mae a signature for who's the member of the month, it is more noticable. Just my advice, its your decision
[/list]

[color=green]Usergroup total:19/20[/color]

[b][color=blue]Forum Activity[/color][/b]

[list=1]
[*][b]Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score:10/10):[/b]In total, your forum members has posted a total of 32,040 for 359 members, that's so awesome for just hundred of members, you would usually get more posts when you reached 1000 plus members, i've seen several members posted 1000 posts or more and there are always new posts everyday. Congrats!

[*][b]Users Active (Score:9/10):[/b]According to the forum statistics, there are 22 users being most online, but when i saw the members being connected last 24 hours, they are 60 plus, your forum as well as the members is active. About the inactive members, send them weekly letters about the latest updates on your forum.
[/list]
[color=green]Activity total:19/20[/color]

[center][b][color=red][size=15]Overall Mark: 90/100[/size][/color][/b]


[b][size=18][font=Century Gothic][color=cyan]Conclusion[/color][/font][/size][/b][/center]

[b][color=blue]What could be done to improve your forum:[/color][/b]Follow what i suggested above

[center]Great work, and best of luck to you and your forum![/center]

Thanks for the review, zoids! I appreciate you taking the time to go through all of that and to offer your advice and constructive criticism, though I do have to disagree with you about some things. It's a little disappointing to see that our score dropped by 5 points since our previous layout, especially after how much more work we've (my fiancé - the other Admin - and I) put into it. I can understand though how some things could be improved, like the welcome page, for instance.

I'm not a fan though of message boards that are organized in the way that you indicated, as that has always seemed upside down and backwards to me. It's true that our main purpose is role-playing, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the role-playing boards need to be at the very top. Most all role-playing boards that I know of also do not do this either, so to do so would be very confusing and would perhaps even turn off potential new members, I feel.

The banner is something that can't be moved up further, lest we remove the smokey fog effect around the lettering, which is possible, but we'd lose that effect as part of our logo, which we've had since the beginning.

Oh, and I tried to hide the Member of the Month usergroup, but that function doesn't operate properly, or at least if it does, it's not very good, since if you hide any usergroups, then anyone in that usergroup doesn't have it displayed in their name/profile any longer. It just shows them as a regular member. I'm not sure why this is, since I thought hiding the usergroup would just remove it from the front page, but apparently it hides it from the entire message board, which defeats the purpose, sadly.

You offered some good suggestions, so I'm going to take these into account and pass them on to my fiancé as well, who has helped a great deal in the coding and look of the board, so thank you so much, again!

tnx for appreciating mey review. I don't also know you dropped 5 points from your last review its beacuse its the first time i reviewed this forum. Sorry about that. MrMario can fix it.