Super Mario Forum Review request

Apr

2011

: Supurge's Super Mario Bros. X forum.
Address: http://smbxsupurge.forumotion.com/
Area's you wish the reviewer to review: Two area review: Design/Theme & Lay out and General.
Your Name on the board: FatCatNine

1 CANADIEN, on 15/04/2011 at 06h57

I'm getting to your review right away.

2 Jophy, on 15/04/2011 at 12h14

Hi, your forum does not meet the specific requirements needed for the requested review area. Please update your request within 24 hours with an area that meets our requirements, thanks.

Please take another look at our guidelines which is located here.

CANADIEN ~ Please don't complete this request yet unless the author updates his request.

3 CANADIEN, on 16/04/2011 at 07h16

Super Mario Bros X

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: 17/20):
The first thing I notice when I come to your forum is the Mario Theme. I must say, your forum sure does look like a Mario forum right off the bat. The navigation bar is very colourful and the background goes well with the banner. The only unattractive part (at least to me), that I notice as soon as I log in is the chatbox. This may just be me, as I'm not a fan of them, but I think that it is big and bulky, especially being placed at the top of your forum. I'd suggest moving it to the bottom or removing it. You need to way the pros and cons and decide if it is really worth keeping.
Categories & Forums (Score: 8/10):
I noticed that you've created one category per forum, while using sub-forums to make up the bulk of the forums hierarchy, so to speak. I found that it actually made it a bit harder to navigate by having to look through the sub-forums. What I suggest is creating one category that houses all forum-related boards (ie. Announcements, Introductions, Updates, etc), and then if you have two or more related categories, putting the sub-forums into those. I hope I don't sound confusing, but I mean that you should spread out the boards more, and reduce the number of categories you are using. Also, if you have sub-forums that are hardly used, I'd suggest merging them with another and creating a more general thread.

Generalities total :: 25/30

Graphic Design & Layout

Graphics (Score: 19/20):
Banner
I must give props to whoever created your banner. It fits in perfectly with the rest of your forum's theme. The text, especially, with the same pixelated style as the in-game Mario Brothers is, really enhanced the overall effect it has. The colours and characters that are used in it also give anyone who quickly passes by recognition that this is a Mario related forum. Even further, the fact that the background is transparent and there is no defined border around the banner makes the forum appear more fluid, and the graphics flow better.
Navigation Bar
At first glance the navigation bar looks great and totally fits into the forum. However, maybe this is me just being knit-picky, but it would look a lot better if the text was all aligned on each individual button, so as to create a more symmetrical look. I know that may not be possible with the buttons that have text taking up more than one line, but I think for the rest, it would really improve them. The colours and images used on them add to the overall Mario theme.
Forum Icons
I also really like your forum icons. Especially the index buttons. I like how the New Posts and No New Posts buttons are similar and the viewer is quickly and easily able to distinguish between the two. This might have just been at the time of the review, but I wasn't able to distinguish between the New Posts and No New Posts buttons for the boards with sub-topics. The buttons inside each board are also really great. I like how you used only Mario Bros. related characters and sprites. I like the star (announcement) icon the most!
'Who Is Online?' Image
This is a personal choice that you've made not to include a Who's Online button and it neither adds or subtracts from the forums overall design. If you feel like it, you could add a small image or sprite just to distinguish that this area is for the forum statistics and online members list. But it is totally up to you and not something to really worry about if you do not have one.
Forum Layout & Colors (Score: 8/10):
Looking at the layout as a whole, the forum looks pretty good. The colours work well together for the most part, though I am not too fussy on the blue and black colour choice for the index. I would have thought maybe a lighter colour, such as yellow, light green, or even yellow because they seem more like "Mario colours" to me. Also, when you scroll down to the very bottom of the forum, the background image obscures part of the statistics somewhat. Because of the colours in that area of the background, and the colour of the text, it makes it hard to read. However, it is not a huge deal. Overall, I found the layout of your forum to be very appealing, the only drawback being the blue/back choice of colour for the categories and index. I noticed this quickly at the end, but when you are looking in a thread, there is no real distinction between the in-thread profile of the poster and the body of the post. I'm not sure what you could do to change it, but it's just something I notice that you may want to look into. But, overall, a solid layout!

Graphic Design & Layout total :: 27/30

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]Super Mario Bros X[/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: 17/20):[/b] The first thing I notice when I come to your forum is the Mario Theme. I must say, your forum sure does look like a Mario forum right off the bat. The navigation bar is very colourful and the background goes well with the banner. The only unattractive part (at least to me), that I notice as soon as I log in is the chatbox. This may just be me, as I'm not a fan of them, but I think that it is big and bulky, especially being placed at the top of your forum. I'd suggest moving it to the bottom or removing it. You need to way the pros and cons and decide if it is really worth keeping. [*][b]Categories & Forums (Score: 8/10):[/b] I noticed that you've created one category per forum, while using sub-forums to make up the bulk of the forums hierarchy, so to speak. I found that it actually made it a bit harder to navigate by having to look through the sub-forums. What I suggest is creating one category that houses all forum-related boards (ie. Announcements, Introductions, Updates, etc), and then if you have two or more related categories, putting the sub-forums into those. I hope I don't sound confusing, but I mean that you should spread out the boards more, and reduce the number of categories you are using. Also, if you have sub-forums that are hardly used, I'd suggest merging them with another and creating a more general thread. [/list] [color=limegreen]Generalities total :: 25/30[/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: 19/20):[/b] [size=11][u][b]Banner[/b][/u][/size] I must give props to whoever created your banner. It fits in perfectly with the rest of your forum's theme. The text, especially, with the same pixelated style as the in-game Mario Brothers is, really enhanced the overall effect it has. The colours and characters that are used in it also give anyone who quickly passes by recognition that this is a Mario related forum. Even further, the fact that the background is transparent and there is no defined border around the banner makes the forum appear more fluid, and the graphics flow better. [size=11][u][b]Navigation Bar[/b][/u][/size] At first glance the navigation bar looks great and totally fits into the forum. However, maybe this is me just being knit-picky, but it would look a lot better if the text was all aligned on each individual button, so as to create a more symmetrical look. I know that may not be possible with the buttons that have text taking up more than one line, but I think for the rest, it would really improve them. The colours and images used on them add to the overall Mario theme. [size=11][u][b]Forum Icons[/b][/u][/size] I also really like your forum icons. Especially the index buttons. I like how the New Posts and No New Posts buttons are similar and the viewer is quickly and easily able to distinguish between the two. This might have just been at the time of the review, but I wasn't able to distinguish between the New Posts and No New Posts buttons for the boards with sub-topics. The buttons inside each board are also really great. I like how you used only Mario Bros. related characters and sprites. I like the star (announcement) icon the most! [size=11][u][b]'Who Is Online?' Image[/b][/u][/size] This is a personal choice that you've made not to include a Who's Online button and it neither adds or subtracts from the forums overall design. If you feel like it, you could add a small image or sprite just to distinguish that this area is for the forum statistics and online members list. But it is totally up to you and not something to really worry about if you do not have one. [*][b]Forum Layout & Colors (Score: 8/10):[/b] Looking at the layout as a whole, the forum looks pretty good. The colours work well together for the most part, though I am not too fussy on the blue and black colour choice for the index. I would have thought maybe a lighter colour, such as yellow, light green, or even yellow because they seem more like "Mario colours" to me. Also, when you scroll down to the very bottom of the forum, the background image obscures part of the statistics somewhat. Because of the colours in that area of the background, and the colour of the text, it makes it hard to read. However, it is not a huge deal. Overall, I found the layout of your forum to be very appealing, the only drawback being the blue/back choice of colour for the categories and index. I noticed this quickly at the end, but when you are looking in a thread, there is no real distinction between the in-thread profile of the poster and the body of the post. I'm not sure what you could do to change it, but it's just something I notice that you may want to look into. But, overall, a solid layout! [/list] [color=darkred]Graphic Design & Layout total :: 27/30[/color]

4 Rideem3, on 16/04/2011 at 23h02

Your review has been proofread and has been marked "completed." This review has been accepted and will now be moved to the official review archives.

If there were any mistakes that I found to be a misunderstanding, I edited it out, and made the correct additions to the review in bold color.