Review for www.jaxstorm.com

Jun

2010

Name of the Forum: www.jaxstorm.com
Address: http://www.jaxstorm.com/
Area's you wish the reviewer to review: Full Review

1 KingOfSports, on 17/06/2010 at 03h11

Tagged! =P

Will be completed in 72 hours or less.

2 KingOfSports, on 18/06/2010 at 04h16

Jaxstorm

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: 15/20):
Ok, I scrolled through your forum really quickly and some things looked different compared to other forums. Firstly, I found it interested that the banner was not centered. The next thing I noticed that was different were the View posts since last visit
View your posts and View unanswered posts links. Those seemed a little off in positioning. They were in between right align and centered, which made them look a little weird. Some other things looked weird as well; the category names werent exactly centered. There also wasnt any space between the topics, posts, and last post sections on the right.

Other than that, its a pretty small forum, but it has a lot of cool features like the navigation dropdown bar, the side bar, and the footer bar.
Categories & Forums (Score: 4/10):
As I said before, there arent many forums or places to post. There are only 3 categories and two of those categories only have 1 forum. The shop forum doesnt have any posts and the awards forum only has 5 posts. I would try to make up categories about what your forum is about and then make a general forum, questions, rumors, etc. I would also recommend an intro section.

Generalities total :: 19/30

Graphic Design & Layout

Graphics (Score: 15/20):
Banner
I feel like Ive seen this banner before, but Im not sure where. In my opinion, it doesnt really show people what your forum is about. I think that it would look better if it was centered and had some text on it like the name of the site or a slogan. It is a plus that your background color and banner color are black and I personally love yellow on black so it looks good in my opinion.
Navigation Bar
I love this nav bar and as a matter of fact, Im talking to you about it right now. =P Anyway, I really like dropdown feature. Its very useful to display a lot of links. The members drop down is really cool. Its awesome how you organized is so that the memberlist can be displayed by join date or EXP. Thats an awesome feature so good work on that part of it. The my profile one is really cool as well. I think it would be beneficial if it had a My Signature link since people would use that a lot. Ive never seen any forum use links to lead to the character sheet before, but thats a cool feature as well. Finally, I dont think fun is the best name for the last one, but the feedback forum also looks organized and well coded.
Forum Icons
There is probably a CSS code that you could use to move the forum icons down a little bit. They seem too high up and arent in line with the forum name. Other than that, they match the main banner which is cool and the others match as well.
'Who Is Online?' Image
I dont see one so I cant rate your forum on this.
Forum Layout & Colors (Score: 7/10):
The black and blue them looks good. The only thing I would try to change is the white space at the bottom of the forum. That large white space breaks the consistent theme. The links are good and useful, but the white background doesnt work for me. Other than that, the only layout I would change is centering the banner, forum icons and move the View posts since last visit
View your posts
View unanswered posts to the right.

Graphic Design & Layout total :: 22/30

Usergroups

Population of Groups (Score: 5/10):
Out of all the groups, only 4 of them have a decent amount of users in them. The recruits, chiefs, captains, and admiral groups all have a good amount of users, so I would leave them alone. However, the other groups all have 0 users in them. I would consider hiding or removing them until you have some users to put in them.
Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 7/10):
Im not really sure which groups are the staff groups, but the admiral group has a good amount of users. I dont think that you will need another admin for a long time. As for the other groups, as I said before, I would just hide them until you get users to put In the groups.

Usergroups :: 12/20

Forum Activity

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

Our users have posted a total of 263 messages
We have 89 registered users
The newest registered user is KingOfSports

That comes out to under 3 posts per users, which is pretty bad. You need something new to entertain your users. Try holding more contests or offering more things in the shop. You can also create a daily chat thread where users can talk about their day ore something like that.
Users Active (Score: X/10):

Members connected during last 24 hours : USERNAMES

This isnt displayed so I cant rate it.

Forum Activity total :: 3/10

(+extra points Wink

)
60/90

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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]Jaxstorm[/font][/b][/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][/color][/b] [list=1] [*][b]First Impressions (Score: 15/20):[/b] Ok, I scrolled through your forum really quickly and some things looked different compared to other forums. Firstly, I found it interested that the banner was not centered. The next thing I noticed that was different were the View posts since last visit View your posts and View unanswered posts links. Those seemed a little off in positioning. They were in between right align and centered, which made them look a little weird. Some other things looked weird as well; the category names werent exactly centered. There also wasnt any space between the topics, posts, and last post sections on the right. Other than that, its a pretty small forum, but it has a lot of cool features like the navigation dropdown bar, the side bar, and the footer bar. [*][b]Categories & Forums (Score: 4/10):[/b] As I said before, there arent many forums or places to post. There are only 3 categories and two of those categories only have 1 forum. The shop forum doesnt have any posts and the awards forum only has 5 posts. I would try to make up categories about what your forum is about and then make a general forum, questions, rumors, etc. I would also recommend an intro section. [/list] [color=limegreen]Generalities total :: 19/30[/color] [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: 15/20):[/b] [size=11][u][b]Banner[/b][/u][/size] I feel like Ive seen this banner before, but Im not sure where. In my opinion, it doesnt really show people what your forum is about. I think that it would look better if it was centered and had some text on it like the name of the site or a slogan. It is a plus that your background color and banner color are black and I personally love yellow on black so it looks good in my opinion. [size=11][u][b]Navigation Bar[/b][/u][/size] I love this nav bar and as a matter of fact, Im talking to you about it right now. =P Anyway, I really like dropdown feature. Its very useful to display a lot of links. The members drop down is really cool. Its awesome how you organized is so that the memberlist can be displayed by join date or EXP. Thats an awesome feature so good work on that part of it. The my profile one is really cool as well. I think it would be beneficial if it had a My Signature link since people would use that a lot. Ive never seen any forum use links to lead to the character sheet before, but thats a cool feature as well. Finally, I dont think fun is the best name for the last one, but the feedback forum also looks organized and well coded. [size=11][u][b]Forum Icons[/b][/u][/size] There is probably a CSS code that you could use to move the forum icons down a little bit. They seem too high up and arent in line with the forum name. Other than that, they match the main banner which is cool and the others match as well. [size=11][u][b]'Who Is Online?' Image[/b][/u][/size] I dont see one so I cant rate your forum on this. [*][b]Forum Layout & Colors (Score: 7/10):[/b] The black and blue them looks good. The only thing I would try to change is the white space at the bottom of the forum. That large white space breaks the consistent theme. The links are good and useful, but the white background doesnt work for me. Other than that, the only layout I would change is centering the banner, forum icons and move the View posts since last visit View your posts View unanswered posts to the right. [/list] [color=darkred]Graphic Design & Layout total :: 22/30[/color] [img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/usergr10.png[/img] [b][color=teal][size=19]Usergroups[/size][/color][/b] [list=1] [*][b]Population of Groups (Score: 5/10):[/b] Out of all the groups, only 4 of them have a decent amount of users in them. The recruits, chiefs, captains, and admiral groups all have a good amount of users, so I would leave them alone. However, the other groups all have 0 users in them. I would consider hiding or removing them until you have some users to put in them. [*][b]Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 7/10):[/b] Im not really sure which groups are the staff groups, but the admiral group has a good amount of users. I dont think that you will need another admin for a long time. As for the other groups, as I said before, I would just hide them until you get users to put In the groups. [/list] [color=teal]Usergroups :: 12/20[/color] [img]http://i87.servimg.com/u/f87/13/67/77/07/foruma30.png[/img] [b][color=orange][size=19]Forum Activity[/color][/b][/size] [list=1] [*][b]Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 3/10):[/b] [quote] Our users have posted a total of 263 messages We have 89 registered users The newest registered user is KingOfSports [/quote] That comes out to under 3 posts per users, which is pretty bad. :( You need something new to entertain your users. Try holding more contests or offering more things in the shop. You can also create a daily chat thread where users can talk about their day ore something like that. [*][b]Users Active (Score: X/10):[/b] [quote]Members connected during last 24 hours : USERNAMES[/quote] This isnt displayed so I cant rate it. [/list] [color=orange]Forum Activity total :: 3/10[/color] (+extra points ;)) [color=limegreen][b][font=Trebuchet MS Bold Italic][size=24]60/90[/font][/b][/size][/color]