Forum Name: General Talk Link: http://GeneralTalk.net Type of Review: Free review Extra Notes: None Your name on Forum: Teekay
Yesterday on the homepage, it said you can request a free review, I thought it was a promotional offer so I stated that.
Nope. You'll need to reread the review rules. Reviews are free anyway, they just have requirements that need to be met.
Site looks interesting. I think it would be something that everyone would find to comment on some topic. Best of luck to you, it looks decent to me so far.
We currently have no reviewers, drogba921 vanished so we had to demote him. He was supposed to complete your review and I sincerely apologize for the extreme amount of time you have had to wait for your it to be completed. We will be opening applications for the position in the next few days, I will personally make sure that you are top of the list when that position is filled. My deepest apologies.
First Impressions & AppearanceJust from taking a quick glance at your forum, I can tell it will be a great success if you stick at it, great theme with a nice, sleek logo. However, I would definitely think of changing the logo to some sort of banner, just to add more spice. I also noticed straight away that the last posts on almost all of your forums are very recent, which is important for a new forum. Overall, I had very good first impressions.(Score:17/20)Forums and layoutYour forums are layed out very well, although I noticed that the GT cash marketplace is in a category by itself. It doesnt look very good so I would suggest maybe putting it in the "General Talk HQ". Another problem with the layout was the "status updates" block on the sidebar, in my opinion it should be higher up the sidebar. It would make a nice first impression for new visitors. Another tip I have is getting rid of the "Latest topics" block on the sidebar and replacing its position with the "new posts" block. GT is still young, and there will not be a whole load of topics posted daily, so having that block makes the forum look a bit dead, as the newest topic is from 8 days ago.(Score:15/20)Statistics and ActivityYour forum's activity is average for a forum with 13,000 posts, there are a decent number of new posts added every day, and you have a few regular members. One thing I would suggest is sparking some discussions yourself by making around 5 new topics a day. Sometimes having nothing to talk about is what drives new members away, its not their responsibility to make new topics after all, and once your forum grows you will notice the members will post lots of new topics themselves. At this time in a forum's life, it is important that members see that the admin is dedicated, and posting more will show this As a final point, your other admin hasnt been active in almost a month.(Score:14/20)Staff ModerationI dont see any problems here, you have a great moderator, and he seems to be doing his job very well, just take care of the activity problems and you will definitely get 20/20. Just one niggly point I have to make, the team colours do not show up in the last post section of forums. This may be down to my own personal taste, but I think newbies may be interested to see who is important straight away (Score:19/20)Spelling/Grammar of users and forumI dont like to split hairs, so the only thing I will say is that your forum descriptions are way too short and not very descriptive, this will only complicate things for newbies, as they might get confused over where exactly to post.(Score:19/20)Total Points 89 / 100 Final/General ThoughtsYou should be proud of what you have achieved, its hard to start a general discussion forum and make it competitive, but I can definitely see GT being up there with the best in the near future. I love the feel of the forum, it feels nice and "cosy". So I may sign up very soon Strong Points:- Love the theme- You have some regular membersThings to improve on:- The admins need to be more active - Get a nice banner to spice up the forum Please make sure to rate the review.
Thanks Shady for clearing that up. and thanks for the review. I agree, the forum has been slightly quiet in the last week or so but we have some great things planned for the coming month, be sure to check that out. I'll spice up the forum description and I have rearranged the order of the sidebars.
