The Sleeping Dragon

[MisforM]

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[MisforM]

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[MisforM]

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[MisforM]

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[MisforM]

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[Mixed]

Hello MisforM,

You bumped. I review. I had noticed your forum before but I would like to take the time now to review it. How I normally handle reviews includes first off a first impression - what pops when I just arrive at your site. Then I go through your boards exploring as a guest and noting what I like and where I think things could improve. Ready? Let's go.


First Impression:                                       
Very nice. I like the forum banner and it's obviously Hogwarts. Ooo... there's a dragon. :}  And the Tri-Wizard Cup? I wonder what this forum focuses on exactly. Mysterious...

It's a good first impression. And I will start the details with what brings the better part of the first impression now.


Forum Skin:                                               
This includes your banner, the background and the color scheme.

I really do like your Forum banner. The title is simple and easily seen; it could even be interpreted as the name of an inn inside the wizarding world. It is obvious from the banner alone that you have built a Harry Potter forum focused around the Tri-Wizard tournament. There are two tweaks I would probably make if I were you. First, I would brighten the title lettering a bit to bring it forward a tad more - so it doesn't disappear with the windows. Second, I would move the dragon over some to the left. As is, it just doesn't look right with the neck highlighted by the moon. I feel it would look much nicer with the head in the moonlight.

In terms of your background, I think it compliments both your color scheme and the topic quite well. At least from my point of view, a mysterious-looking forest almost automatically means magic. Great choice!

The color scheme, as I already alluded to, is very nice. It compliments both your banner and your background without hiding and without popping too far forward. The light blue text on the blue background surrounded by a dark blue border really works for me. It is very easy to read and easy on the eyes. My one little suggestion would be to change the member color from the purple, which seems too close to the blue to be easily read, to a lighter purple.

Lastly for the skin, I would like to comment on the text styles your chose to use. I like them. Neither the category names nor the board titles have a font face that is exactly like most other forums out there. Indenting the descriptions in a bit from the titles was a nice touch. It makes it very easy to find where one board starts and another ends when just skimming down the page.

Summary: your skin is great in my book!


Layout:                                                       
Three categories and 21 boards. I think it's good you have only three categories to start. You've organized it well. With two role-play categories and one with the everything not role-play, I think it would be very easy for new players and visiting guests to find their way around. Your descriptions in the Out of Character category are clear and you have everything I can think an RPG forum would require for its back-stage of sorts.

That all being said, I think you should minimize your playing boards for now. You have minimal members and with so many boards, it could seem like you have no activity (which would be a deterrent). I understand your forum is new and so you don't lose the work you did on these boards, I would simply disable them for now. Once your activity picks up, it would be really easy to reactivate them. I say this especially with floors Ground through Seventh in mind. Without descriptions they could all be considered to be equal. I see the pictures, yes, but maybe it would be nicer if in the board title you added something such as "Fourth Floor - Library". Still I would disable a few of your RP-boards at least until you have a stronger member base to fill them.

I like your use of pictures in the description of the RP-boards; however, I'm not a fan of the empty space next to them. You could stretch the images to fill this space, or if possible (and what I think I'd prefer), include in this space a short 1-sentence description of the area.

Summary: Your organization of your site is good but I would minimize the RP-board numbers until your member-base and activity rises.


Activity:                                                      
I know the forum is quite new. Still I want to give you these suggestions. To gain activity, a forum normally requires activity. So I would recommend you and your first members start playing as soon as you have characters prepared. In addition, I would offer you could use your C-box to communicate to show your activity. It is very nice to see all your members (all staff so far?) online in the last 24 hours.

Another suggestion would be to open your C-box to guests. Yes, you would have to monitor it closely to be sure no trolls settle in, but guests might feel more welcome if they can communicate easily with you while deciding whether or not to join. This is usually something up for debate so it is entirely (as all my suggestions are) up to you.

Summary: So far you seem to have a very welcoming site, but it just maybe be hard for guests to notice that right now. But you probably already know, patience is needed when starting a forum.


Notice Board:                                              
Lastly, I wanted to look at your rules. Normally I just read the rules of the site, but this time I thought I'd also look at the rest of the threads in your Notice Board - since they are all right there.

Rules --
Your rules are very clear and easily digestible. To the point and yet polite. Very nicely written. Just a point of missing words in Rule 1.iii you've written "That's what we're here for, isn't ___?" See what you're missing?

Plot --
Oooo. I like it very much. It a time and internet age of many many different Harry Potter forums, I like that you have something different. A world without Voldemort? Good thinking! I can definitely see the potential for original character development and hope you see many wonderfully fun twists!

House Points --
This is a neat idea! Great motivation and fun to really bring the community together.

Summary: Very reasonable. Very cool. Very neat.


Overall:                                                       
You are probably tired of reading what I have to say now so I'll wrap up. First off, your forum was a wonderful place to visit and forum to review. I think you pulled together an awesome skin and organized the boards and layout very well. You have some very nice incentives for new members and just from reading some of the stuff you already have up, I know you would be a very welcoming community to join (which is important when attracting members).

I hope some of what I said helps or even just gives you a smile. Good luck and have fun at the Sleeping Dragon!

[MisforM]

Hey there Mixed! Thank you so much for your review. Stupid rules and missing the word "it". As for the chat box, the OC chat is open to guest, and the IC doesn't (EDIT: I realize the issue now, and I'm fixing it up). As for activity and amount of boards, I'll definitely look into limited the boards at the beginning as there aren't a whole bunch of members.

I really appreciate that you seem to really like it. I haven't actually opened up the site and started advertising yet (I'm waiting until my schedule frees up a bit and that'll be after next weekend and a con I'm attending), but when I do, I will definitely take your advice as well as possibly making the edits on the banner as well!

[Mixed]

Hi MisforM! I am REALLY glad you liked the review and it didn't overwhelm you. I realized after I posted it that it was the longest review I had ever given and worried it would be a bit too daunting to take in.

Don't worry about missing words and typos. Those things happen and it normally just takes another person to read it to find these little things. And I DID like your forum; I may even try affiliating with you once my forum is up.

Enjoy the con! Good luck with your forum!