tagged, i'll be done in 24 - 48 hours, im kind of busy, got loads of things to do

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:

Generalities

1. First Impressions (Score: 17/20):
   The first thing i see when i enter your forum is your banner, which is well designed and sets the theme for your forum well, i also noticed that you have a dark theme with blue and white text. Having a dark theme does give a proffesional look to your forum and matches with what your forum is about. I also noticed that you have a Merry Christams sign thats sparkling and then pelow you have a button that helps any members with log in or registering problems, this is good so your members know where to go if they can't log in. I see that you have installed a snow script on your forum to give it that christmassy theme, it is easy to see that you have decorated your forum for christmas and thats always good. So good work on the first impressions, your forum gives a professional feel to any guests that visit your site.
   
2. Categories & Forums (Score: 5/10):
   You have 4 categoeries which are all very different in size, tryto keep some consistancy between the length of your categoeries, one thing that would help you in doing this is by hiding your sub-forums, at the moment your sub-forums are just lengthening the index and making it look tacky, if you hide your sub-forums, all your categoeries would be an equal length and your forum would look more proffesional and would be improved. Your forumn descriptions are all fine, they tell you what the forum is about well and there coulor of text fits with your blue and black theme well, just one thing you need to do is hide the moderators bit under the description as this doen't help the appearence of your forums, get rid of the moderators display and it will look more organised.(you can show it as long as the font's color matches with the font of the descriptions of the forum) One thing i would also suggest is that you should uncenter the forum titles and descriptions as these just make all the forums look uneven, if you have them uncentered, it willlook more organised and will be easier to read the descriptions,(they're not centered, the subforums shown on he index just looks really centered which needs to hiding) also it helps make the forums look less crowded with text which is what the problem is at the moment. All your forums are relivant and make sense with the pupose of your forum, just work on the layot of them.
   

Generalities total ::22/30


Forum Style

1. Major Graphics (Score: 9/10):
   
   Banner: (5/5)
   Wow, i really like your banners design, it has a decorated PSP in big and a small psp bellow your forums main title on the right. the black and white PSP's stand out on the dark black background and i really like the way that you have a border of ice around the whole banner, this is a really good effect and gives a strong contrast between the grey backdrop of your forum and the black banner, keep that aspect! I also like the way that your abnner gives the illusion that its a cold winter, by making the text white stand out against that black background and by having the ice around the banner, it feels like you outside and its snowing, its a great banner, full marks! (may i also suggest you to atleast reduce the ice/frozen effect on the sides of the banner, it makes the banner rusty and a little bit rough, try to reduce a little bit of it.
   Navigation Bar: (4/5)
   Your navigation bar is very simplistic and matches with your forums blue and black theme, although i would say that it is a bit too simplistic and is plain and boring, try making or getting a new navigation bar that fits your theme well and that stands out a bit more. Your navigation bar at the moment is good because it stands out against the black background and the blue text gives the illusion that its really cold, so if you choose to make a new navigation bar, mabye you should stick with the blue text, just make whats around the blue text more exciting, mabye you could make the text bigger and clearer too. So your navigation bar isn't bad its good, but to get full marks for this, it needs to be better designed graphicly.
   
2. Images & Icons (Score: 7/10):
   Well your images and icons are well thought out, you have a blue circle for "new posts", a grey circle for "no new posts2 and a red circle with a lock on it for "locked posts". these are all good and are easy for members to just look at them and instantly know which one means which thing which is always good. One thingi have to say though is that the new posts icon is very distorted and blurry and isn't as clearly cut as the other ones, you need to redesign that to be as clear cut as the other icons are, there is no black outline around the blue circle and there needs to be and the grey backgorund is blurry, you need to sort that icon out(make it also transparent, removing the black background of it on the legend, it will look good). Mabye you should think about making the who is online? text bigger and more fancy other than just some letters, you could try making a "who is online?" image that would fit with your forums theme, it would make the forum look better designed, at the moment its a bit bland and hard to see, make it stand out more and your forum will look much better. Your topic icons for new posts etc.. are very good, there clear well drawn and match what there job is. But they dont keep consistancy with the forum icons ass in the forum icons, a new post is blue, but in thr topic icons, a new post is yellowy green. Really the new posts for the topics need to be blue so they match the forums new posts icons. Sort this out and your well on your way to improving your forums design! Your new topic icons match the nest of your theme well and really, there's nothing bad about them, keep it up!
   
3. Forum Layout & Color Scheme (Score: 6/10):
   As ive said before, your forum's colour scheme is really good, everything, icli=uding the post icons, match it. Your forums theme is clearly blue and grey and it workis really well, keep up the good work with this as your colour scheme makes the forum look really proffesional, the only issue with it is that the new posts forum icon is a different colour to the new posts topic icon and really, to be consistant, they need to be the same.
   as for your categoeries and forums, as ive said before, there layout looks really tacky as you haven't hidden your sub-forums, if you hide them then your forums will look more proffesional and more organised, having your sub -forums un hidden makes your forums descriptions look all unveven and makes it look like your forums are in no order. Also you need to hide those Moderators notices under the forums description as they just make the forums look tacky. Do this and your forums layout will be greatly improved, thats the main issue with your forums layout so it does need to be sorted out.
   
   Forum Style total :: 22/30
   

Usergroups

1. Population of Groups (Score: 9/10):
   Well you have 5 staff groups, which is a good amount to have for a forum of your size. You have 1 administrator, which i all you need at the moment, untilo your forum gets really active, that is all you will ever need. You have 2 Super Moderators, which again is a good amount for your forums size, no more needed, but you have no sectionmoderators which made me think if there is any point in having that group, i think you should either hire your best members into that group to help you with keeping the forum clean or delete the group , this way all your groups populations will be equal. You have one member of the GFX staff which is ok but mabye you could think of adding some more but 1 is ok for now. And you have a great amount of coders 2 is a good amount to have aswell and it keeps your groups nicely populated. the only thing you need to do is sort out that section moderators group and mabye add some members to it.
   
2. Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 9/10):
   well you have 5 staff groups which all have there purposes, you have Administrators, Super Moderators, Section Moderators, GFX team and coders, these are all relievant to your forum and are all useful, its good to have staff members who can help you keep the forum clean and you have done this. the only issue is the lack of members in the section moderators group, you either don't need this group ir you need to add members too it. Thats the only issue with this section and the only thing i can say bad about it.
   

Usergroups :: 18/20


Forum Activity

1. Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 3/10):
   

   Our users have posted a total of 1661 messages
   We have 124 registered users
   

   
   
   This is not enough messages for the amount of members you have, 1661 messages for 124 members is very poor, we would usually expect around 5500 messages for your amount of members, you need to get your members posting because at the moment if you divide the messages out into posts per user you only get 13 messages per user! This is really low, you need to get your members to post more, mabye encourage them to post by giving your best members rewards for posting or something like that. its always good to get your members to post more.
   
   
   
2. Users Active (Score: 4/10):
   

   Members connected during last 24 hours : Battle Star, Blacksun, Double_0_negative, Gamerboy, Gyroswar, kruba4789, NaTeFrEsH, Pimpin PSP, Reviewer, Stardust, sunsucker
   

   
   
   You have only 10 users connect during the past 24 hours if you don't include me, that is really low, you need to make an attempt to get more members to join and get active in your forum and also get your old members back. You can get your old members back by sending out weekly newsletter telling them about the latest updates to the site or send out an email to all your inactive members telling them why they should come back. if you do this you should get your forum active very quickly. This aspect fo your forum is the bit you really need to improve on as your forum isn't very active at the moment. Getting your old members back and inviting new members to get active at your forum will help with this. Also none of your staff members had conected in the past 24 hours but one! You need to get your staff active as they keep the forum in check.
   

Forum Activity total :: 7/20


Other


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


•Aestheticsm: B

•Organization: C

•Originality: B

•Forum Language: C

•Professionalism: B

•Rules and Terms of Services: C

•Cleanliness of The Index/Portal: C

•Creativity: B

•Forum Features: D

•Staff Moderation and Activity: D

Others average: C



What could be done to improve your forum:
You should try and get your old members back to increase the forums activity.
The best thing I like about your forum:
Your banner was the best feature by far as it was really well designed.

Would you like to share your review on your forum, on another forum, or with your friends? Then here you go... grab the code!.

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]PSP Community
[/b][/font][/size][/color]
[/center]


[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]




[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]
[*]First Impressions (Score: 17/20):
The first thing i see when i enter your forum is your banner, which is well designed and sets the theme for your forum well, i also noticed that you have a dark theme with blue and white text. Having a dark theme does give a proffesional look to your forum and matches with what your forum is about. I also noticed that you have a Merry Christams sign thats sparkling and then pelow you have a button that helps any members with log in or registering problems, this is good so your members know where to go if they can't log in. I see that you have installed a snow script on your forum to give it that christmassy theme, it is easy to see that you have decorated your forum for christmas and thats always good. So good work on the first impressions, your forum gives a professional feel to any guests that visit your site.
[*]Categories & Forums (Score: 5/10):
You have 4 categoeries which are all very different in size, tryto keep some consistancy between the length of your categoeries, one thing that would help you in doing this is by hiding your sub-forums, at the moment your sub-forums are just lengthening the index and making it look tacky, if you hide your sub-forums, all your categoeries would be an equal length and your forum would look more proffesional and would be improved. Your forumn descriptions are all fine, they tell you what the forum is about well and there coulor of text fits with your blue and black theme well, just one thing you need to do is hide the moderators bit under the description as this doen't help the appearence of your forums, get rid of the moderators display and it will look more organised. One thing i would also suggest is that you should uncenter the forum titles and descriptions as these just make all the forums look uneven, if you have them uncentered, it willlook more organised and will be easier to read the descriptions, also it helps make the forums look less crowded with text which is what the problem is at the moment. All your forums are relivant and make sense with the pupose of your forum, just work on the layot of them.
[/list]
[color=limegreen]Generalities total ::22/30[/color]


[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]
[*]Major Graphics (Score: 9/10):

[size=11][u]Banner[/u][/size]: (5/5)
Wow, i really like your banners design, it has a decorated PSP in big and a small psp bellow your forums main title on the right. the black and white PSP's stand out on the dark black background and i really like the way that you have a border of ice around the whole banner, this is a really good effect and gives a strong contrast between the grey backdrop of your forum and the black banner, keep that aspect! I also like the way that your abnner gives the illusion that its a cold winter, by making the text white stand out against that black background and by having the ice around the banner, it feels like you outside and its snowing, its a great banner, full marks!
[size=11][u]Navigation Bar[/u][/size]: (4/5)
Your navigation bar is very simplistic and matches with your forums blue and black theme, although i would say that it is a bit too simplistic and is plain and boring, try making or getting a new navigation bar that fits your theme well and that stands out a bit more. Your navigation bar at the moment is good because it stands out against the black background and the blue text gives the illusion that its really cold, so if you choose to make a new navigation bar, mabye you should stick with the blue text, just make whats around the blue text more exciting, mabye you could make the text bigger and clearer too. So your navigation bar isn't bad its good, but to get full marks for this, it needs to be better designed graphicly.
[*]Images & Icons (Score: 7/10):
Well your images and icons are well thought out, you have a blue circle for "new posts", a grey circle for "no new posts2 and a red circle with a lock on it for "locked posts". these are all good and are easy for members to just look at them and instantly know which one means which thing which is always good. One thingi have to say though is that the new posts icon is very distorted and blurry and isn't as clearly cut as the other ones, you need to redesign that to be as clear cut as the other icons are, there is no black outline around the blue circle and there needs to be and the grey backgorund is blurry, you need to sort that icon out. Mabye you should think about making the who is online? text bigger and more fancy other than just some letters, you could try making a "who is online?" image that would fit with your forums theme, it would make the forum look better designed, at the moment its a bit bland and hard to see, make it stand out more and your forum will look much better. Your topic icons for new posts etc.. are very good, there clear well drawn and match what there job is. But they dont keep consistancy with the forum icons ass in the forum icons, a new post is blue, but in thr topic icons, a new post is yellowy green. Really the new posts for the topics need to be blue so they match the forums new posts icons. Sort this out and your well on your way to improving your forums design! Your new topic icons match the nest of your theme well and really, there's nothing bad about them, keep it up!
[*]Forum Layout & Color Scheme (Score: 6/10):
As ive said before, your forum's colour scheme is really good, everything, icli=uding the post icons, match it. Your forums theme is clearly blue and grey and it workis really well, keep up the good work with this as your colour scheme makes the forum look really proffesional, the only issue with it is that the new posts forum icon is a different colour to the new posts topic icon and really, to be consistant, they need to be the same.
as for your categoeries and forums, as ive said before, there layout looks really tacky as you haven't hidden your sub-forums, if you hide them then your forums will look more proffesional and more organised, having your sub -forums un hidden makes your forums descriptions look all unveven and makes it look like your forums are in no order. Also you need to hide those Moderators notices under the forums description as they just make the forums look tacky. Do this and your forums layout will be greatly improved, thats the main issue with your forums layout so it does need to be sorted out.

[color=darkred]Forum Style total :: 22/30[/color]
[/list]

[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]
[*]Population of Groups (Score: 9/10):
Well you have 5 staff groups, which is a good amount to have for a forum of your size. You have 1 administrator, which i all you need at the moment, untilo your forum gets really active, that is all you will ever need. You have 2 Super Moderators, which again is a good amount for your forums size, no more needed, but you have no sectionmoderators which made me think if there is any point in having that group, i think you should either hire your best members into that group to help you with keeping the forum clean or delete the group , this way all your groups populations will be equal. You have one member of the GFX staff which is ok but mabye you could think of adding some more but 1 is ok for now. And you have a great amount of coders 2 is a good amount to have aswell and it keeps your groups nicely populated. the only thing you need to do is sort out that section moderators group and mabye add some members to it.
[*]Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 9/10):
well you have 5 staff groups which all have there purposes, you have Administrators, Super Moderators, Section Moderators, GFX team and coders, these are all relievant to your forum and are all useful, its good to have staff members who can help you keep the forum clean and you have done this. the only issue is the lack of members in the section moderators group, you either don't need this group ir you need to add members too it. Thats the only issue with this section and the only thing i can say bad about it.
[/list]

[color=teal]Usergroups :: 18/20[/color]


[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][*]Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 3/10):
[quote]Our users have posted a total of 1661 messages
We have 124 registered users
[/quote]

This is not enough messages for the amount of members you have, 1661 messages for 124 members is very poor, we would usually expect around 5500 messages for your amount of members, you need to get your members posting because at the moment if you divide the messages out into posts per user you only get 13 messages per user! This is really low, you need to get your members to post more, mabye encourage them to post by giving your best members rewards for posting or something like that. its always good to get your members to post more.


[*]Users Active (Score: 4/10):
[quote]Members connected during last 24 hours : Battle Star, Blacksun, Double_0_negative, Gamerboy, Gyroswar, kruba4789, NaTeFrEsH, Pimpin PSP, Reviewer, Stardust, sunsucker
[/quote]

You have only 10 users connect during the past 24 hours if you don't include me, that is really low, you need to make an attempt to get more members to join and get active in your forum and also get your old members back. You can get your old members back by sending out weekly newsletter telling them about the latest updates to the site or send out an email to all your inactive members telling them why they should come back. if you do this you should get your forum active very quickly. This aspect fo your forum is the bit you really need to improve on as your forum isn't very active at the moment. Getting your old members back and inviting new members to get active at your forum will help with this. Also none of your staff members had conected in the past 24 hours but one! You need to get your staff active as they keep the forum in check.
[/list]

[color=orange]Forum Activity total :: 7/20[/color]


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


•Aestheticsm: B

•Organization: C

•Originality: B

•Forum Language: C

•Professionalism: B

•Rules and Terms of Services: C

•Cleanliness of The Index/Portal: C

•Creativity: B

•Forum Features: D

•Staff Moderation and Activity: D

[color=orange]Others average: C

[center][img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/yourov10.png[/img]

[b][size=20]Overall Marking: 62/100[/size][/color][/b]
[size=24][b][color=limegreen]You have passed![/color][/b][/size]

[size=18][color=blue][b]Your Grade:[/b][/color][/size] [size=24][color=red][b]C[/b][/color][/size]

[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]
You should try and get your old members back to increase the forums activity.
[b][color=teal][size=14]The best thing I like about your forum:[/b][/size][/color]
Your banner was the best feature by far as it was really well designed.

ok thanks again zoids

cool

thanks very much for this long and detailed review!

i will take your tips seriously so that my forum will improve more

im glad that i have passed

thanks again

no problem battle, your ment to post that bottom bit of th ebove post in the rate your review announcement in the forum reviews section

sorry, i posted it in the right forum now

dont be sorry