Alicia-Online

[maxxist]

Looking for any feedback whatsoever, whether it be the boards, the theme, individual pages, etc..
I would also appreciate suggestions on getting guests to sign up, thank you

Description: Alicia-Online is a forum for a game under the same name to help new players learn how to play and bring the community closer together.

alicia-online.freeforums.net/

[Mixed]

Hello maxxist!

Before I give you a review I'd like to briefly take you through my process. I will start with first impressions to give you an idea of what a guest may think and what pops out when they first visit your site. Then I will look through your layout and a bit of your content as a guest considering to join your forum. This will include reading your rules to get a feel for the type of community you hope to build. Are you ready? Let's start!


First Impressions:                               
Ooo ponies! I like the background, very nice.

So obviously this forum has something to do with horses and you've done a lovely job relaying that. Just a disclaimer, I have no idea what Alicia-online really is. Anyway, we can continue.


Layout & Color Scheme:                     
I like your layout. It is simple to follow and still broken with the sidebar. Your use of the sidebar for announcements, shoutbox, and credits is very good.

You also have a good balance between forum-specific boards and game-specific boards. It wouldn't be overwhelming at all to new members to figure the lay of the land.

Your color scheme, however, could use some improvements. No doubt the black, grey, white goes well with the background, but I think your grey of the board background is too dark. The black of the links and timestamps (both in the boards and the header bar) are very hard to read, especially when they fall over the dark color of the horse's head. What if you used a lighter grey or swapped the grey with the white in your boards (not the category headers because these are very clear)?


Forum Banner:                                    
I separated this because it isn't really a part of your color scheme at this point and it should be a decent portion of your forum in terms of impressions.

While I like the image you have, I do not feel it is good for a forum banner. I would recommend you use this image as your forum logo and even as your forum favicon. For the banner, however, I would suggest you find a full image to showcase the intents of your site. This could also include you forum title, which I would also separate a little bit from the official game.


Content:                                              
Here, I would simply like to give you a few random notes from what I see in the content of your boards.

First off, I would hold off on the contest at least until you have your first few members. Sometimes, the first 10 members can be the hardest to find.

Second, I would recommend you post an introduction in the "Introduce yourself" board so that potential members get an idea of the admin they will be dealing with. Could be fun too to see who relates.

Last note would really be helped by separating your forum title from the official game title. In the "Suggestions/Opinions" board, at first I'm not sure if you are talking about how to make the game better or your forum better since you've referred to both Alicia-Online and 'the forum', which you can do. The confusion would be less if there was a clear distinction in the names.


Rules:                                                  
Your rules were very easy to find. Thank you.  

I want to be sure you know that a guest could reply to your rules. Do you mean for that?

As for the rules themselves, while they are very clear, they also come across as very blunt. Your rule about the Help board, for example, just rubbed the wrong way. I feel that anyone looking for help may not post there at all for fear of annoying the admin. From the fourth rule about arguing with staff, I really hope you choose your staff very well as some people just aren't meant to be staff in the first place. Debates and questions will rise for staff to answer to.

Last, just as a note, you may wish to link the ProBoards TOS when you mention it in the last rule.

Other than that, I think your rules are a good set for a discussion board.


Overall:                                              
In general, I think you've built a great start-up for a discussion board both in content and layout. With a few changes to the scheme and content atmosphere to make the forum easier to read and more welcoming, I think you could really have a nice forum on your hands.


I wish you luck in building your community!

[maxxist]

Thank you for the reply, Mixed! It was very informative and I shall start making some needed changes
I was not aware that guests could reply to the rules, I'll fix that. Thank you!