*Tagged*, I got this

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

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Generalities

1. First Impressions (Score: 14/20):When i first opened your forum, i saw a very dark forum because almost all of the colors on the index are considered dark colors, there are lots of scrolling words but doesn't bother me, I'd seen about 12 guests viewing the forum while i was reviewing this criteria, nice work, it seems a very busy forum, the index size is just right, not too long, not too short and not too fat, there is also welcome message on the index which shows that you care for your members and guests, the colors of the forum are really exhausting, as i scrolled down to your index, i saw that the chatbox is blending to the color and background of the forum, so my suggestion here is to just remove it because for my observations, it's inactive and just ruins the index appearance, but i liked how index are placed and they look organized. The index appearance is not that bad.
   
   
2. Categories & Forums (Score: 17/20):The number of forums and categories on your index is just perfect!, not too many and not that less, each forums had brilliant amount of posts! Nice positioning and organization of forums too however may i suggest you to place the forum namely 'Welcome to the forum - Please read the rules first.' to the first portion of the forum so new members can find it easily as it is a forum where the rules/guidelines and it's also considered the introduction forum for new members, so placing it at the 1st portion will be more effective and will look more professional, but the forum descriptions are just fine and can be easily understood however, i don't understand why you had a visitor forum to show where your visitors are located but for these, i can suggest you to just have a widget and a link where if members and guests click that link on the widget, it will direct them on where visitors come from than having a forum showing where visitors come from just ruins the index appearance but the decision is still yours, but yeah, nice work here
   
   

Generalities total :: 31/40

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Forum Style

1. Major Graphics (Score: 4/10):
   Banner-The banner looks fine for me for the main subject of your forum, the font used is good and partners with the color of the fonts on your forum however, i noticed that it's too plain and simple, there is no other special on your banner besides the font and the picture, may i suggest you to have some other designs there like having dark backgrounds on it etc. to make it more interesting, i must really say the banner is not that eye catching but yeah, try having some designs/backgrounds on it.(2/5)
   
   Navigation Bar-The navigation bar looks good with icons beside them however, i can barely read the words of the navigation bars, the darkred color blends with the black color of the forum making it harder to read, so try having backgrounds, borders etc. on your navigation bars so it will be easier to be noticed, the navigation bars namely the 'new topic' and 'post reply' are fine.(2/5)
   
   
2. Forum Layout & Color Scheme (Score: 5/10):The colors of the forum which are black/gray and darkred are really bad combinations i must say, all of them are considered dark colors making the index look exhausting, it's also hard to read sentences/words on the forum so my suggestion here is to have atleast one light/medium color like blue,red,green etc, other than having all dark colors on the forum, so try to use some light/medium colors. The background doesn't matter.
   
   
3. Images & Icons (Score: 4/10):The icons beside the navigation bars are good but may i remind you that the icons of the 2 other navigation bars are animated and some are not, may i suggest you to have all of them being not-animated rather than having some animated and some are not which makes the forum like a ghost town, making them not animated will look more good and normal but nice icons used there, the 'who is online?' icon is bad, the picture is random and doesn't raelate to 'who is online?', why would you have a random picture on the 'who is online' widget? so my suggestion here is to have an icon relating to statistics, who is online etc. rather than having random icon which also destroys the index appearance, the forum icons namely the 'new post', 'no new post', and 'forum is locked' are also good and easy to be noticed, Definitely, get those things fixed
   
   

Forum Style total :: 13/30

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Usergroups

1. Population of Groups (Score: x/10):-Well for here, the admin and moderator group is hidden and didn't allow me to acess on it so i didn't know how many admins and mods are there so I'll not include this category.
   
   
2. Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 3/10):As i've mentioned above, the groups are hidden, so my suggestion here is to atleast make the groups visible so members and guests will know who is who for some reason, for that, i'll give you a 3/10
   
   

Usergroups :: 3/10

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Forum Activity

1. Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 9/10):
   

   Our users have posted a total of 19114 messages
   We have 5126 registered users
   The newest registered user is reviewer

   
   
   Nice and brilliant amount of posts! The forum is really active i must say considering the number of posts, almost all of the forums had the latest post made today and yesterday, 3 forums only had the latest post made last Nov 22-24 , nice work, new posts was made while i am reviewing your forum, if i were to divide the posts to the members( not including me), each member will get 3 posts, still nice work, just keep it running!
   
   
2. Users Active (Score: 10/10):
   

   Members connected during last 24 hours : 18iskwl, 2501, 80DGY, AcidSnake, adryzf, aesthetics28, alexanderus, Ascaerdoth, Atilla, automotion, Avery0001, bad bagger, Badger, Beavershark, Beefy mongoose, billsykes, Black.Panda, Blackfoxx, brianjohn87, cap927, composer of war, connR101, D3viL.R, darkassassin101, darkness_assassin, darkslyde, DayVay, dazqo, Deathwalk, Diakor, DJMAR, djvista, Doudomida, douglas, Drafter808, drRoxo, Duffer`, edwasx, ematrix, Eridan, ezio110, Fallout, Frentraken, gashgul, genius55, gerlk, gizmo_gadget_3, godowesmoses, Gr8H8, Gramzon, granma1, gunner226, guy1959, gw33do, heavenuse, HoBag009, holey336, homuskis, illusive817, iouzip, Jaden, jake5152, Jamie, Jax, jgra1907, jhao1127, Jokermask, jonnyroo, jozefgalazka, Kane94, kowic, KroenenPayne, kuzurame, Lord_Turkey, Ludvuk, Manbreakfast, mcsquizy, mgrung, mikimon, Mikiwi93, MINImanGOTgunz, Musashi, Nightshade, Nortlov, Nova_Kaine, numamun, octapop, Peacemaker, Phyreblade, plasmacow, Psycho93, pururuca, quackquack, qwertyui0, R0b0t1, RabbleRouser241, Raeth87, rafael felix, rarutard, reaper9116, reviewer, Richard, RyknowRage, S3kShUn8, Sandman, saturnmike, Scatterlaser, ScattiX, sev, shadejolt7, shadohheart, Shadow Knight, shadowstormr, shinobi47, SINZA, Skreen, snowboardmoose, Sum 1 Random, sumasss, svain, svena, teenageher0, Th3Element05, Theane, TheNightAngel, thesixbull, Toedash, TriblTatts, TunnelDweller69, uhlinator, Vader, Valkyrex, Vaughn91, vhallock, Viktorheyman, warhead360, wartornspectre, White-Nine, Xargos, XII-OniWolf-XII, yavor92, yukora07, zang1288, Zartust, ZCally, Zendo, zetatustra

   
   
   Wow i must say, considering the number of users logging in each 24 hour period, I'd seen up to 4 members online while i was reviewing your forum, there are 115 users being most online, outstanding!, that's really nice work on this criteria, keep it up! Send out weekly newsletters about the latest updates on your forum to get the inactive members back.
   

Forum Activity total :: 19/20

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Other

Grade Legend: A- Outstanding! B-Very Good C-Good D-Fair/Average E-Poor F-Very Poor

• Aestheticsm: D
  
• Organization: D
  
• Originality: B
  
• Forum Language: B
  
• Professionalism: D
  
• Rules and Terms of Services: C
  
• Cleanliness of The Index/Portal: D
  
• Creativity: E
  
• Forum Features: C
  
• Staff Moderation and Activity: C
  

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[size=14]What could be done to improve your forum:
Follow what i suggested above
The best thing I like about your forum:
The formation of forums and categories

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Code:

[center][img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/yourfo10.png[/img]

[color=limegreen][b][font=Trebuchet MS Bold Italic][size=24]Exotic Automatic[/b][/font][/size][/color]
[/center]
[hr]

[table][tr][td][img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/review12.png[/img][/td] [td]Congratulations! Your free forum review has been completed. The forum review will hold many tips, suggestions, comments, and feedback that's convenient and voluntary for your forum. Here is your forum review:[/td][/tr][/table]

[hr]

[img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/genera12.png[/img] [b][color=limegreen][size=19]Generalities[/size][/b][/color]

[list=1][*][b]First Impressions (Score: 14/20):[/b]When i first opened your forum, i saw a very dark forum because almost all of the colors on the index are considered dark colors, there are lots of scrolling words but doesn't bother me, I'd seen about 12 guests viewing the forum while i was reviewing this criteria, nice work, it seems a very busy forum, the index size is just right, not too long, not too short and not too fat, there is also welcome message on the index which shows that you care for your members and guests, the colors of the forum are really exhausting, as i scrolled down to your index, i saw that the chatbox is blending to the color and background of the forum, so my suggestion here is to just remove it because for my observations, it's inactive and just ruins the index appearance, but i liked how index are placed and they look organized. The index appearance is not that bad.

[*][b]Categories & Forums (Score: 17/20):[/b]The number of forums and categories on your index is just perfect!, not too many and not that less, each forums had brilliant amount of posts! Nice positioning and organization of forums too however may i suggest you to place the forum namely 'Welcome to the forum - Please read the rules first.' to the first portion of the forum so new members can find it easily as it is a forum where the rules/guidelines and it's also considered the introduction forum for new members, so placing it at the 1st portion will be more effective and will look more professional, but the forum descriptions are just fine and can be easily understood however, i don't understand why you had a visitor forum to show where your visitors are located but for these, i can suggest you to just have a widget and a link where if members and guests click that link on the widget, it will direct them on where visitors come from than having a forum showing where visitors come from just ruins the index appearance but the decision is still yours, but yeah, nice work here

[/list]
[color=limegreen]Generalities total :: 31/40[/color]
[hr]
[img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/forums10.png[/img] [b][color=darkred][size=19]Forum Style[/b][/color][/size]

[list=1][*][b]Major Graphics (Score: 4/10):[/b]
[size=11][u][b]Banner[/b][/u][/size]-The banner looks fine for me for the main subject of your forum, the font used is good and partners with the color of the fonts on your forum however, i noticed that it's too plain and simple, there is no other special on your banner besides the font and the picture, may i suggest you to have some other designs there like having dark backgrounds on it etc. to make it more interesting, i must really say the banner is not that eye catching but yeah, try having some designs/backgrounds on it.(2/5)

[size=11][u][b]Navigation Bar[/b][/u][/size]-The navigation bar looks good with icons beside them however, i can barely read the words of the navigation bars, the darkred color blends with the black color of the forum making it harder to read, so try having backgrounds, borders etc. on your navigation bars so it will be easier to be noticed, the navigation bars namely the 'new topic' and 'post reply' are fine.(2/5)

[*][b]Forum Layout & Color Scheme (Score: 5/10):[/b]The colors of the forum which are black/gray and darkred are really bad combinations i must say, all of them are considered dark colors making the index look exhausting, it's also hard to read sentences/words on the forum so my suggestion here is to have atleast one light/medium color like blue,red,green etc, other than having all dark colors on the forum, so try to use some light/medium colors. The background doesn't matter.

[*][b]Images & Icons (Score: 4/10):[/b]The icons beside the navigation bars are good but may i remind you that the icons of the 2 other navigation bars are animated and some are not, may i suggest you to have all of them being not-animated rather than having some animated and some are not which makes the forum like a ghost town, making them not animated will look more good and normal but nice icons used there, the 'who is online?' icon is bad, the picture is random and doesn't raelate to 'who is online?', why would you have a random picture on the 'who is online' widget? so my suggestion here is to have an icon relating to statistics, who is online etc. rather than having random icon which also destroys the index appearance, the forum icons namely the 'new post', 'no new post', and 'forum is locked' are also good and easy to be noticed, Definitely, get those things fixed

[/list]
[color=darkred]Forum Style total :: 13/30[/color]
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[img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/usergr10.png[/img] [b][color=teal][size=19]Usergroups[/size][/b][/color]

[list=1][*][b]Population of Groups (Score: x/10):[/b]-Well for here, the admin and moderator group is hidden and didn't allow me to acess on it so i didn't know how many admins and mods are there so I'll not include this category.

[*][b]Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 3/10):[/b]As i've mentioned above, the groups are hidden, so my suggestion here is to atleast make the groups visible so members and guests will know who is who for some reason, for that, i'll give you a 3/10

[/list]
[color=teal]Usergroups :: 3/10[/color]
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[img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/foruma30.png[/img] [b][color=orange][size=19]Forum Activity[/b][/color][/size]

[list=1][*][b]Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 9/10):[/b]
[quote]Our users have posted a total of 19114 messages
We have 5126 registered users
The newest registered user is reviewer[/quote]

Nice and brilliant amount of posts! The forum is really active i must say considering the number of posts, almost all of the forums had the latest post made today and yesterday, 3 forums only had the latest post made last Nov 22-24 , nice work, new posts was made while i am reviewing your forum, if i were to divide the posts to the members( not including me), each member will get 3 posts, still nice work, just keep it running!

[*][b]Users Active (Score: 10/10):[/b]
[quote]Members connected during last 24 hours : 18iskwl, 2501, 80DGY, AcidSnake, adryzf, aesthetics28, alexanderus, Ascaerdoth, Atilla, automotion, Avery0001, bad bagger, Badger, Beavershark, Beefy mongoose, billsykes, Black.Panda, Blackfoxx, brianjohn87, cap927, composer of war, connR101, D3viL.R, darkassassin101, darkness_assassin, darkslyde, DayVay, dazqo, Deathwalk, Diakor, DJMAR, djvista, Doudomida, douglas, Drafter808, drRoxo, Duffer`, edwasx, ematrix, Eridan, ezio110, Fallout, Frentraken, gashgul, genius55, gerlk, gizmo_gadget_3, godowesmoses, Gr8H8, Gramzon, granma1, gunner226, guy1959, gw33do, heavenuse, HoBag009, holey336, homuskis, illusive817, iouzip, Jaden, jake5152, Jamie, Jax, jgra1907, jhao1127, Jokermask, jonnyroo, jozefgalazka, Kane94, kowic, KroenenPayne, kuzurame, Lord_Turkey, Ludvuk, Manbreakfast, mcsquizy, mgrung, mikimon, Mikiwi93, MINImanGOTgunz, Musashi, Nightshade, Nortlov, Nova_Kaine, numamun, octapop, Peacemaker, Phyreblade, plasmacow, Psycho93, pururuca, quackquack, qwertyui0, R0b0t1, RabbleRouser241, Raeth87, rafael felix, rarutard, reaper9116, reviewer, Richard, RyknowRage, S3kShUn8, Sandman, saturnmike, Scatterlaser, ScattiX, sev, shadejolt7, shadohheart, Shadow Knight, shadowstormr, shinobi47, SINZA, Skreen, snowboardmoose, Sum 1 Random, sumasss, svain, svena, teenageher0, Th3Element05, Theane, TheNightAngel, thesixbull, Toedash, TriblTatts, TunnelDweller69, uhlinator, Vader, Valkyrex, Vaughn91, vhallock, Viktorheyman, warhead360, wartornspectre, White-Nine, Xargos, XII-OniWolf-XII, yavor92, yukora07, zang1288, Zartust, ZCally, Zendo, zetatustra[/quote]

Wow i must say, considering the number of users logging in each 24 hour period, I'd seen up to 4 members online while i was reviewing your forum, there are 115 users being most online, outstanding!, that's really nice work on this criteria, keep it up! Send out weekly newsletters about the latest updates on your forum to get the inactive members back.
[/list]
[color=orange]Forum Activity total :: 19/20[/color]
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[img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/genera12.png[/img] [b][color=limegreen][size=19]Other[/size][/b][/color]

Grade Legend: [b]A[/b]- Outstanding! [b]B[/b]-Very Good [b]C[/b]-Good [b]D[/b]-Fair/Average [b]E[/b]-Poor [b]F[/b]-Very Poor

[list][*][b]Aestheticsm[/b]: D                 
[*][b]Organization[/b]: D
[*][b]Originality[/b]: B
[*][b]Forum Language[/b]: B
[*][b]Professionalism[/b]: D
[*][b]Rules and Terms of Services[/b]: C
[*][b]Cleanliness of The Index/Portal[/b]: D
[*][b]Creativity[/b]:  E
[*][b]Forum Features[/b]: C
[*][b]Staff Moderation and Activity[/b]: C
[/list]
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[center][img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/yourov10.png[/img]
[b][color=turqoise][size=20]Overall Marking: 66/100[/size][/color][/b]
[size=24][b][color=limegreen]You have passed![/color][/b][/center]
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[center][img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/conclu10.png[/img][/center]

[b][color=teal][size=14]What could be done to improve your forum:[/b][/size][/color]
Follow what i suggested above
[b][color=teal][size=14]The best thing I like about your forum:[/b][/size][/color]
The formation of forums and categories

[hr]


Thank you so much for your time, effort, and opinion.

To answer a few questions...

The colors of black, gray, white, and red are colors I like but I will see if I can find a better combination so it isn't so dark looking.

We did have a banner that animated beween many different pictures but it seemed it was making loading problems. It's about time for a new banner so I'll add that to my list of things to do. It needs a freshening up.

I didn't know what to put in the 'who is online' icon so I used a custom smiley that shows the object of out forum (wristblades), so in a way it is related.

We have two people who do the admin job, myself and another. I have made others moderators but I found that they tend not to do anything but be bosssy to other members and never help out in forum clean up. I'm happy with having one other to help, he's a great guy and does a lot. We also have a handful of members who have stepped up to kind of guide others around.
The usergroups we don't really use. I have different ranks but it's more so people feel good when they reach a certain number of post or have compleated a certain kind of project. I'll do some reading to see if I need to use this more and why.

I have thought about newsletters and I think a two year mark is a good time to do the first.

My report card:
Aestheticsm: D -O.K. I understand you didn't like the way it looks, I'll work on that and see what everyone likes. I'll do a few different versions then have a poll to get opinions from members.

Organization: D - Really? You said "Nice positioning and organization of forums too" with a couple suggestions...and I get a D? Could you explain please?

Originality: B - I can live with that.

Forum Language: B - We try to keep it fairly mature, no need for foul mouths.

Professionalism: D - Really? How am I failing and how can I make it better?

Rules and Terms of Services: C

Cleanliness of The Index/Portal: D Is it too many widgets on the side?

Creativity: E ? To what? I'd like to make it better...is it just the looks that you don't like so much?

Forum Features: C What more should I have? You said take out the chatbox, but members asked for it. Am I missing something? You said it wasn't clean as it is...I'm confused.

Staff Moderation and Activity: C - We do o.k. We tend to stay on top of things.

So my average is a C ?

Again, I thank you for all your time and opinions. It would be great if I could get answers to my above questions, but even if I can't I will still try to work on a few things suggested to make my forum better. Great review.
Thanks again
Sizna

Organization: ya the organization of the forums is good but organization is not just seen on the forums, there are also things hard to find on the forum like the navigation bars which is blending with the dark color of the background, it just looks like floating, also, it took me time to find the forum for rules and introduction and also, the visitors forum also ruins it, the forums should be arranged from important to not important

Professionalism: try making the group legends visible, try fixing the arrangement of the forum(as i've mentioned above) from important to non-important

Cleanliness: the visitors forum is bad, its bad having it on the index for me, another thing that ruins the index is the who is online icon is different from others, i mean why would you have a white icon for a dark forum, and the chatbox looks like a floating border at the bottom as it is blending the black background.

Creativity: The graphics made, as I'd seen some of the icons are default

Forum features: Here is you have 5123 registered users right? however, no other features than chatbox, I mean you have 5000 members plus but you should also try having more unique forums that will attract more guests, why not have forum games? Some contests? or any gaming features on your forum? in this way, more members will come, try expanding/adding features of the forum