Tagged

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I'll get this completed within 2 - 3 days if that's alright with you?

Sounds good.

Sorry for the delay. I've been caught up in several occasions lately, including a big Easter party I had with nearly my whole family, haha. If I am to finish my homework tonight, I'll be able to get to this review... or I can work on it tomorrow.

Take your time.

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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: 18/20):
   When I first entered your forum's main index page, I found the layout and colors to be 'welcoming.' You know how sometimes you open the backdoor of your house to go outside, and that breeze of fresh air just smacks you straight in the face? Well, that's how I felt when I entered the forum's index. There was a clean forum theme, everything was kept simple, the design was decent, and it felt like the forum was alive. Furthermore, the only thing that actually troubled my taste of the forum was the navigation bar; the text was terribly pixelated, and it was hard to read what the text said.
   
   
2. Categories & Forums (Score: 8/10):
   The categories and forums appear to be kept very simple; all that I've seen was just one category with 7 discussion boards. I actually like forums that have a clean and simple look to them. However, the only problems that I see with the categories and forums criteria is that the 'General Discussions' section is in the middle of all of the discussion boards, and both that section and 'Alpha Posts' have no forum descriptions aded to them. May I recommend that you add forum descriptions to both of those sections, and then move the 'General Discussions' section to the bottom of all of the discussion boards considering that it's the least important board of all of your discussion forums.
   

Generalities total :: 26/30

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Design & Layout

1. Graphics (Score: 14/20):
   Banner
   In my opinion the banner is the most well-created image on your forum. Oh, and just a small secret between the two of us... I like zombie-killing as well. [:
   
   Navigation Bar
   As I had stated before earlier in the review, I don't necessarily find the navigation bar attractive. All I see in it is just pixelated text. I think that you should get the text-pixelation problem fixed, and then the navigation bar would look nice. Plus, to make it stylish, why not adding some barbwire to it like you did with the background image of the forum widgets? (:
   
   Forum Icons
   I kinda like the green and black hand forum icons, but the 'Locked' icon is just a plain phpBB forum icon. I think you should get another hand icon with the fist balled up for the 'Locked' icon. That would be pretty cool.
   
   'Who Is Online?' Image
   There is no 'Who Is Online?' image, so I won't count this criteria for a score.
   
   
2. Forum Layout & Colors (Score: 10/10):
   What really attracted me for this criteria was the barbwire background image for the forum widgets as well as the homepage message background image. Those were pretty cool, and I liked them. Another thing I like about the layout is the light-green color scheme and white-to-green-gradient background image. Nice job on the layout criteria!
   

Design & Layout total :: 25/30

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Usergroups

1. Population of Staff Members (Score: 10/10):
   In total, your forum has 2 administration team members and 4 moderation team members. I think that's a pretty good amount of staff members considering the activity of your forum. Keep up the good work, and be sure that you keep your moderators available for moderation during the majority of time they spend on the forum.
   
   
2. Usergroups in General (Score: 3/10):
   In my opinion I don't think that you need the 'Veterans' usergroup. I mean, all it's going to do is make things look messy. I believe that just giving the actual ex-staff members ranks should be good enough. In addition to that, why is there a 'Staff' usergroup? I do not honestly see a reason for it considering that you already have the 'Administrators' and 'Moderators' usergroups. Oh, and speaking of 'Administrators' and 'Moderators', why are the usergroup colors for both of them the same color? I don't think that having purple for both of those usergroups will work out ideal.
   

Usergroups :: 13/20

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Forum Activity

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

   Our users have posted a total of 20079 messages
   We have 2882 registered users
   The newest registered user is thelastlilman37
   

   
   When I first saw that you forum had over 2880 registered forum members, I thought to myself that your forum was a very active forum, indeed. However, then I saw that your forum had approximately 22,000 posts, and I wasn't so astounded anymore. You see, my forum only has around 1,000 registered members and 100,000 posts- which means that your forum is overbalancing in a way. I believe that if your forum haves over 2800+ registered forum members, then your forum should have at least around 100,000 posts or more. But anyway, if you were to divide of the approximated 22,000 posts into the approximated 2880 registered forum members, then that means that, idealistically, each registered forum member has made around 7 posts. If you want my opinion, then I'm sorry but, that's a really bad ratio. 7 posts per member is not a great outcome. If I were you, I would focus more about getting my current forum members posting rather than just earning more members. You need to balance your forum's statistics correctly, and not let anything overbalance. Send out weekly newsletters based on recent on-forum news, as well as daily account inactivity notification emails to bring your current members back to the forum and posting more. Don't forget that newsletters via PM is also a great way to bring back your members. Forum contests are nice to have as well, to keep the members cycling throughout the forum's 'fun side!' Overall, 2800+ registered members and 20,000+ posts are very large achievements; keep up the good work on reaching high statistics, but work more primarily on the amount of forum posts that your forum has.
   
   
2. Users Active (Score: 5/10):
   

   Members connected during last # hours :
   
   

   
   Me viewing the forum as a guest, I don't believe that I can see if the registered members active in the past # hours, so I'll just go ahead and give you half credit for this criteria.
   

Forum Activity total :: 8/20

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What could be done to improve your forum:
Work mostly on getting more posts on your forum to balance your forum's posts and registered members statistics. Also, try getting the navigation bar and the usergroups problems worked out as well.

The best thing I like about your forum:
I like the simplicity of the forum altogether. It's not a large site where you would have to scroll down forever to get to the end of the forum. All it takes is two scrolls with the mouse, and you've achieved on getting to the bottom of the forum index!

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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]Undead Xbox[/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: 18/20):[/b]
[i][font=Georgia]When I first entered your forum's main index page, I found the layout and colors to be 'welcoming.' You know how sometimes you open the backdoor of your house to go outside, and that breeze of fresh air just smacks you straight in the face? Well, that's how I felt when I entered the forum's index. There was a clean forum theme, everything was kept simple, the design was decent, and it felt like the forum was alive. Furthermore, the only thing that actually troubled my taste of the forum was the navigation bar; the text was terribly pixelated, and it was hard to read what the text said.[/font][/i]

[*][b]Categories & Forums (Score: 8/10):[/b]
[i][font=Georgia]The categories and forums appear to be kept very simple; all that I've seen was just one category with 7 discussion boards. I actually like forums that have a clean and simple look to them. However, the only problems that I see with the categories and forums criteria is that the 'General Discussions' section is in the middle of all of the discussion boards, and both that section and 'Alpha Posts' have no forum descriptions aded to them. May I recommend that you add forum descriptions to both of those sections, and then move the 'General Discussions' section to the bottom of all of the discussion boards considering that it's the least important board of all of your discussion forums.[/font][/i]
[/list]
[color=limegreen]Generalities total :: 26/30[/color]
[hr]
[img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/forums10.png[/img] [b][color=darkred][size=19]Design & Layout[/b]

[/color][/size]

[list=1][*][b]Graphics (Score: 14/20):[/b]
[size=11][u][b]Banner[/b][/u][/size]
[i][font=Georgia]In my opinion the banner is the most well-created image on your forum. Oh, and just a small secret between the two of us... I like zombie-killing as well. [:[/font][/i]

[size=11][u][b]Navigation Bar[/b][/u][/size]
[i][font=Georgia]As I had stated before earlier in the review, I don't necessarily find the navigation bar attractive. All I see in it is just pixelated text. I think that you should get the text-pixelation problem fixed, and then the navigation bar would look nice. Plus, to make it stylish, why not adding some barbwire to it like you did with the background image of the forum widgets? (:[/font][/i]

[size=11][u][b]Forum Icons[/b][/u][/size]
[i][font=Georgia]I kinda like the green and black hand forum icons, but the 'Locked' icon is just a plain phpBB forum icon. I think you should get another hand icon with the fist balled up for the 'Locked' icon. That would be pretty cool.[/font][/i]

[size=11][u][b]'Who Is Online?' Image[/b][/u][/size]
[i][font=Georgia]There is no 'Who Is Online?' image, so I won't count this criteria for a score.[/font][/i]

[*][b]Forum Layout & Colors (Score: 10/10):[/b]
[i][font=Georgia]What really attracted me for this criteria was the barbwire background image for the forum widgets as well as the homepage message background image. Those were pretty cool, and I liked them. Another thing I like about the layout is the light-green color scheme and white-to-green-gradient background image. Nice job on the layout criteria![/font][/i]
[/list]
[color=darkred]Design & Layout total :: 25/30[/color]
[hr]
[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 Staff Members (Score: 10/10):[/b]
[i][font=Georgia]In total, your forum has 2 administration team members and 4 moderation team members. I think that's a pretty good amount of staff members considering the activity of your forum. Keep up the good work, and be sure that you keep your moderators available for moderation during the majority of time they spend on the forum.[/font][/i]

[*][b]Usergroups in General (Score: 3/10):[/b]
[i][font=Georgia]In my opinion I don't think that you need the 'Veterans' usergroup. I mean, all it's going to do is make things look messy. I believe that just giving the actual ex-staff members ranks should be good enough. In addition to that, why is there a 'Staff' usergroup? I do not honestly see a reason for it considering that you already have the 'Administrators' and 'Moderators' usergroups. Oh, and speaking of 'Administrators' and 'Moderators', why are the usergroup colors for both of them the same color? I don't think that having purple for both of those usergroups will work out ideal.[/font][/i]
[/list]
[color=teal]Usergroups :: 13/20[/color]
[hr]
[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: 3/10):[/b]
[i][quote]Our users have posted a total of [b]20079[/b] messages
We have [b]2882[/b] registered users
The newest registered user is [b]thelastlilman37[/b]
[/quote]
[font=Georgia]When I first saw that you forum had over 2880 registered forum members, I thought to myself that your forum was a very active forum, indeed. However, then I saw that your forum had approximately 22,000 posts, and I wasn't so astounded anymore. You see, my forum only has around 1,000 registered members and 100,000 posts- which means that your forum is overbalancing in a way. I believe that if your forum haves over 2800+ registered forum members, then your forum should have at least around 100,000 posts or more. But anyway, if you were to divide of the approximated 22,000 posts into the approximated 2880 registered forum members, then that means that, idealistically, each registered forum member has made around 7 posts. If you want my opinion, then I'm sorry but, that's a really bad ratio. 7 posts per member is not a great outcome. If I were you, I would focus more about getting my current forum members posting rather than just earning more members. You need to balance your forum's statistics correctly, and not let anything overbalance. Send out weekly newsletters based on recent on-forum news, as well as daily account inactivity notification emails to bring your current members back to the forum and posting more. Don't forget that newsletters via PM is also a great way to bring back your members. Forum contests are nice to have as well, to keep the members cycling throughout the forum's 'fun side!' Overall, 2800+ registered members and 20,000+ posts are very large achievements; keep up the good work on reaching high statistics, but work more primarily on the amount of forum posts that your forum has.[/font][/i]

[*][b]Users Active (Score: 5/10):[/b]
[i][quote]Members connected during last # hours :

[/quote]
[font=Georgia]Me viewing the forum as a guest, I don't believe that I can see if the registered members active in the past # hours, so I'll just go ahead and give you half credit for this criteria.[/font][/i]
[/list]
[color=orange]Forum Activity total :: 8/20[/color]
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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: 72/100[/size][/color][/b][/center]
[hr]

[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]
[i][font=Georgia]Work mostly on getting more posts on your forum to balance your forum's posts and registered members statistics. Also, try getting the navigation bar and the usergroups problems worked out as well.[/font][/i]

[b][color=teal][size=14]The best thing I like about your forum:[/b][/size][/color]
[i][font=Georgia]I like the simplicity of the forum altogether. It's not a large site where you would have to scroll down forever to get to the end of the forum. All it takes is two scrolls with the mouse, and you've achieved on getting to the bottom of the forum index![/font][/i]

Thanks a lot for the review! I found it very helpful.

If it means anything, the "pixelated navigation bar" is extremely ugly. However only certain computers see that, most of the members see something completely different, I don't know why and I am looking into the problem. Here's what most people see http://tinypic.com/r/6t02yp/5

Also the reason we have so many members and so little posts is that we require all our players to register on the website, but they do not necessarily have to post, even though we encourage it. So we have a lot of players who sign up but do not use the forum other than checking game schedules.

Oh okay, I appreciate you letting me now that. If you have any other comments or any constructed criticism about the review, lend me a PM.

Complete