Bearville Place Review!

May

2010

Name of the Forum: Bearville Place!
Address: http://bearvilleplace.forumotion.com
Area's you wish the reviewer to review: Full Please!! Mr. Green

1 Rok, on 03/06/2010 at 01h08

Tagged!

I'll get started on this review in approximately 24 - 48 hours. Just got back from vacation. Smile

2 TestAwesome!, on 03/06/2010 at 08h29

Awesome, thanks Rok :] Hope you had a nicee time!

3 Rok, on 07/06/2010 at 00h36

Hey, I'm sorry that I couldn't get to your review yesterday. I'm working on the review right now, but I won't be able to finish it at the moment because I'm about to go to bed, sorry. I'll save it as a document, and then in the morning, I'll be able to complete it.

4 TestAwesome!, on 07/06/2010 at 08h05

Itsh fine

5 Rok, on 08/06/2010 at 04h10

Bearville Place!

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

First Impressions (Score: 10/20):
My first impression as I stepped into your forum index for the first time was the unique use of colors that your forum has. There are tons of nice colors on your forum, and that makes the forum original. However, I did spot several problems that I wouldn't want to see if I were a newbie browsing the forum. Firstly, the graphics honestly aren't snazzy; and by that, I mean that they look pixelated and they seem to look as if you just copied-and-pasted a bunch of pixelated images from Google and placed them together to make an image, such as your banner and category header image. You definitely can make a better approach at creating a new banner; your current banner does not blend in well- it's blurry, the text is pixelated, and it appears that you copied-and-pasted buildabears from Google and place them on the banner. The only problem that I see with the category header image is that it looks all blurry and pixelated. If you were able to find a more decent image similar to that and not all blurry, then that would be great. However, even if you did find a better image similar to the category header image, it still wouldn't match with the banner and the forum icons. The same thing could be said for your background image, but I will get further into detail with that later on in the review. If you were to create some graphics that are well-designed like your navigation bar images, then your forum would definitely look a lot more clear and professional. Also, another 'turn-off' would be the fact that the forum titles are in black font, and that definitely does not match the color scheme of your forum. In my opinion, you should change the color of the forum titles to something more convenient towards the layout... like green or blue. The forum icons are, as well, pixelated and blurry just like the banner and the Who Is Online image. I highly recommend that you find some graphics that are more professional and well-designed. The 'Locked' forum icon doesn't even match with the other two forum icons; plus, you can barely read the text in it. You really do need some new graphics; I suggest requesting some here at the ForuMotion support forum.
Categories & Forums (Score: 5/10):
Your forum has the ideal amount of categories, but there seems to be a tad bit too many discussion forums. What I suggest that you do is combine some of the discussion forums together and remove the discussion forums that you do not need. For example, you can combine the 'FAQs and Help', 'Forum Ideas', and 'Forum Feedback' sections and name the section altogether to something like 'Forum-Related Discussion & Feedback'. Also, the same thing could be done for the 'Bearville Place Rules & Guidelines' and 'Announcements' sections; instead, you could have a section called 'Announcements & Important Info' and have a stickied topic in the section for the offical rules and guidelines of your forum. The 'BP Buttons' section isn't even needed considering that you already have a section for member-made graphics, 'Member Graphics'. And if it's possible, try trimming down the Fun Stuff section by just having about 5 or 6 basic, yet convenient, discussion forums. Here are some suggestions of discussion forums to have in that category: Media & Entertainment (4 subforums for Graphics, Books, Sports, and Television/Movies), Contests & Polls, Forum Games, General Discussions, Recipes & Cooking, and Pictures & Screenshots.

Generalities total :: 15/30

Graphic Design & Layout

Graphics (Score: 6/20):
Banner
As I've stated before, the banner looks blurry and a little bit pixelated. Also, it seems to be... dull, as if you copied-and-pasted the artwork on it from other places on the internet. The text appears to be highly pixelated, and that definitely does not give a good impression on the banner itself. In addition to that, the colors in the general background of the image doesn't even match with any of the other colors on the forum, except for the orange on the background image of the forum. I recommend requesting a new banner.

Navigation Bar
To be honest, the navigation bar buttons are the only well-designed artwork on your forum, no offence. If you could make the rest of the graphics on the forum similar to the navigation bar buttons, then your forum will be set in the graphics criteria.

Forum Icons
The forum icons do not look good at all. All of them are pixelated, and as I mentioned before in the First Impressions criteria of the review, you can't read text on them; nor do they even match with each other. You definitely need to get some new forum icons.

'Who Is Online?' Image
I wouldn't say that the Who Is Online image doesn't look good, but it does have sine blurriness on the text. You probably wouldn't need a replacement for that image; however, it does need to be cleaned up a bit.
Forum Layout & Colors (Score: 2/10):
I really like that background image (the image with all of the multicolored limes.) But honestly, how is it relevant to the main theme of your forum, Build a Bearvile? Maybe you should try getting a new background image that has something like little buildabears on it. Also, the 'beach-like' table background image is blurry, and it doesn't even match anything on your forum. I recommend getting a new image for that as well.

Graphic Design & Layout total :: 8/30

Usergroups

Population of Staff Members (Score: 1/10):
In total, you have 5 administration team members and 12 moderation team members. For a forum with about 85 members, that is not a decent amount of staff members for your forum. Coming from my perspective, I'd say that you should have at most 2 or 3 administrators and 3 or 4 moderators. Having 5 administrators and 12 moderators on your forum definitely is not a balanced staff team. I suggest that you have a team leader for the moderation team so that you will not be the one taking care of it, but another team member will. That will clean up the moderation team usergroup as well as spread a little bit of professionalism around.
Usergroups in General (Score: 3/10):
You have 10 usergroups in total. In my opinion, that's way too many usergroups. The only usergroups that you actually need are the Administration, Moderation, VIP/Donator, and GFX Artist usergroups.

Usergroups :: 4/20

Forum Activity

Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 10/10):
Our users have posted a total of 7936 messages
We have 83 registered users
The newest registered user is Maxine

Your forum has approximately 7,950 forum posts and 85 registered forum members. If you were to divide all of the forum posts into each one of your forums, then the ratio would be about 90-95 posts per member. For a forum with only 83 registered forum members, 90:1 is an excellent ratio of posts per member. Keep up the great with in the posting activity!
Users Active (Score: 5/10):
Members connected during last 48 hours : alice, Badge, BearHugger, BigBird?, CarlyAllHeart, Chloe?, Clarissa?, CynthiaBearilliant, Eveyy, gloasaur<3, ItzelSinger, JeannaBearFun, JennisLove?, karayourock3, Katelynkinzz, KieranBearySmart1, Lamb, lilly, Ninja Joy?, Summer, TestAwesome!, TheBerriHorizon

Your forum has had about 25 registered forum members online in the past 48 hours (2 days). I honestly think that your forum can do a bit more better than that; about 40-45 members in the past 48 hours would be the idealistic amount. If I were you, I would send out daily inactive account notifications and weekly newsletters to all members in order to bring them back to the forum and catching up on posting.

Forum Activity total :: 15/20

Overall Marking: 42/100

What could be done to improve your forum:
You definitely need to work on the layout and forum graphics- that's what killed your stats in this review. Also, keep your forum's registered members coming back and posting.

The best thing I like about your forum:
The ratio of posts per member.

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]Bearville Place![/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: 10/20):[/b] [i][font=Georgia]My first impression as I stepped into your forum index for the first time was the unique use of colors that your forum has. There are tons of nice colors on your forum, and that makes the forum original. However, I did spot several problems that I wouldn't want to see if I were a newbie browsing the forum. Firstly, the graphics honestly aren't snazzy; and by that, I mean that they look pixelated and they seem to look as if you just copied-and-pasted a bunch of pixelated images from Google and placed them together to make an image, such as your banner and category header image. You definitely can make a better approach at creating a new banner; your current banner does not blend in well- it's blurry, the text is pixelated, and it appears that you copied-and-pasted buildabears from Google and place them on the banner. The only problem that I see with the category header image is that it looks all blurry and pixelated. If you were able to find a more decent image similar to that and not all blurry, then that would be great. However, even if you did find a better image similar to the category header image, it still wouldn't match with the banner and the forum icons. The same thing could be said for your background image, but I will get further into detail with that later on in the review. If you were to create some graphics that are well-designed like your navigation bar images, then your forum would definitely look a lot more clear and professional. Also, another 'turn-off' would be the fact that the forum titles are in black font, and that definitely does not match the color scheme of your forum. In my opinion, you should change the color of the forum titles to something more convenient towards the layout... like green or blue. The forum icons are, as well, pixelated and blurry just like the banner and the Who Is Online image. I highly recommend that you find some graphics that are more professional and well-designed. The 'Locked' forum icon doesn't even match with the other two forum icons; plus, you can barely read the text in it. You really do need some new graphics; I suggest [url=http://help.forumotion.com/post.forum?mode=newtopic&f=31]requesting some[/url] here at the ForuMotion support forum.[/font][/i] [*][b]Categories & Forums (Score: 5/10):[/b] [i][font=Georgia]Your forum has the ideal amount of categories, but there seems to be a tad bit too many discussion forums. What I suggest that you do is combine some of the discussion forums together and remove the discussion forums that you do not need. For example, you can combine the 'FAQs and Help', 'Forum Ideas', and 'Forum Feedback' sections and name the section altogether to something like 'Forum-Related Discussion & Feedback'. Also, the same thing could be done for the 'Bearville Place Rules & Guidelines' and 'Announcements' sections; instead, you could have a section called 'Announcements & Important Info' and have a stickied topic in the section for the offical rules and guidelines of your forum. The 'BP Buttons' section isn't even needed considering that you already have a section for member-made graphics, 'Member Graphics'. And if it's possible, try trimming down the Fun Stuff section by just having about 5 or 6 basic, yet convenient, discussion forums. Here are some suggestions of discussion forums to have in that category: Media & Entertainment (4 subforums for Graphics, Books, Sports, and Television/Movies), Contests & Polls, Forum Games, General Discussions, Recipes & Cooking, and Pictures & Screenshots.[/font][/i] [/list] [color=limegreen]Generalities total :: 15/30[/color] [hr] [img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/forums10.png[/img] [b][color=darkred][size=19]Graphic Design & Layout[/b][/color][/size] [list=1][*][b]Graphics (Score: 6/20):[/b] [size=11][u][b]Banner[/b][/u][/size] [i][font=Georgia]As I've stated before, the banner looks blurry and a little bit pixelated. Also, it seems to be... dull, as if you copied-and-pasted the artwork on it from other places on the internet. The text appears to be highly pixelated, and that definitely does not give a good impression on the banner itself. In addition to that, the colors in the general background of the image doesn't even match with any of the other colors on the forum, except for the orange on the background image of the forum. I recommend requesting a new banner.[/font][/i] [size=11][u][b]Navigation Bar[/b][/u][/size] [i][font=Georgia]To be honest, the navigation bar buttons are the only well-designed artwork on your forum, no offence. If you could make the rest of the graphics on the forum similar to the navigation bar buttons, then your forum will be set in the graphics criteria.[/font][/i] [size=11][u][b]Forum Icons[/b][/u][/size] [i][font=Georgia]The forum icons do not look good at all. All of them are pixelated, and as I mentioned before in the First Impressions criteria of the review, you can't read text on them; nor do they even match with each other. You definitely need to get some new forum icons.[/font][/i] [size=11][u][b]'Who Is Online?' Image[/b][/u][/size] [i][font=Georgia]I wouldn't say that the Who Is Online image doesn't look good, but it does have sine blurriness on the text. You probably wouldn't need a replacement for that image; however, it does need to be cleaned up a bit.[/font][/i] [*][b]Forum Layout & Colors (Score: 2/10):[/b] [i][font=Georgia]I really like that background image (the image with all of the multicolored limes.) But honestly, how is it relevant to the main theme of your forum, Build a Bearvile? Maybe you should try getting a new background image that has something like little buildabears on it. Also, the 'beach-like' table background image is blurry, and it doesn't even match anything on your forum. I recommend getting a new image for that as well.[/font][/i] [/list] [color=darkred]Graphic Design & Layout total :: 8/30[/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: 1/10):[/b] [i][font=Georgia]In total, you have 5 administration team members and 12 moderation team members. For a forum with about 85 members, that is not a decent amount of staff members for your forum. Coming from my perspective, I'd say that you should have at most 2 or 3 administrators and 3 or 4 moderators. Having 5 administrators and 12 moderators on your forum definitely is not a balanced staff team. I suggest that you have a team leader for the moderation team so that you will not be the one taking care of it, but another team member will. That will clean up the moderation team usergroup as well as spread a little bit of professionalism around.[/font][/i] [*][b]Usergroups in General (Score: 3/10):[/b] [i][font=Georgia]You have 10 usergroups in total. In my opinion, that's way too many usergroups. The only usergroups that you actually need are the Administration, Moderation, VIP/Donator, and GFX Artist usergroups.[/font][/i] [/list] [color=teal]Usergroups :: 4/20[/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: 10/10):[/b] [i][quote]Our users have posted a total of [b]7936[/b] messages We have [b]83[/b] registered users The newest registered user is [b]Maxine[/b][/quote] [font=Georgia]Your forum has approximately 7,950 forum posts and 85 registered forum members. If you were to divide all of the forum posts into each one of your forums, then the ratio would be about 90-95 posts per member. For a forum with only 83 registered forum members, 90:1 is an excellent ratio of posts per member. Keep up the great with in the posting activity![/font][/i] [*][b]Users Active (Score: 5/10):[/b] [i][quote]Members connected during last 48 hours : alice, Badge, BearHugger, BigBird?, CarlyAllHeart, Chloe?, Clarissa?, CynthiaBearilliant, Eveyy, gloasaur<3, ItzelSinger, JeannaBearFun, JennisLove?, karayourock3, Katelynkinzz, KieranBearySmart1, Lamb, lilly, Ninja Joy?, Summer, TestAwesome!, TheBerriHorizon [/quote] [font=Georgia]Your forum has had about 25 registered forum members online in the past 48 hours (2 days). I honestly think that your forum can do a bit more better than that; about 40-45 members in the past 48 hours would be the idealistic amount. If I were you, I would send out daily inactive account notifications and weekly newsletters to all members in order to bring them back to the forum and catching up on posting.[/font][/i] [/list] [color=orange]Forum Activity total :: 15/20[/color] [hr] [center][img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/yourov10.png[/img] [b][color=turqoise][size=20]Overall Marking: 42/100[/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]You definitely need to work on the layout and forum graphics- that's what killed your stats in this review. Also, keep your forum's registered members coming back and posting.[/font][/i] [b][color=teal][size=14]The best thing I like about your forum:[/b][/size][/color] [i][font=Georgia]The ratio of posts per member.[/font][/i]