Hi there! I responded in your other thread about attracting members to your forum, and I'm happy to see you have a GOAYF thread up so I can go into more detail about what I was referring to.
I'll hold off giving your forum an actual numerical rate, since I'm getting the impression that you're still pretty new to forums as a whole; however, I'll still review your forum on three different categories: first impressions, content, and aesthetics.
I'll also say that what is to follow will likely be long, and might be a little daunting. Please don't be discouraged! Running a forum is a lot more difficult and time consuming than most people think at first, but sticking with it can yield some really fulfilling results.
Ready? Here we go~~
First Impressions:- default design + comic sans :(
- too much content!
- who is the target audience?
- what is the focus?
- needs better organisation
A Second Look - Aesthetics:Unfortunately in this case, while purple is one of my favourite colours, I think that this overall design is just a little lacklustre. Comic Sans, while a fun font, is generally not considered an attractive font design-wise. The overall appearance is still very default, and there's not much to comment on otherwise.
First impressions are, as the adage goes, everything. When it comes to online media, that usually means "does this
look visually appealing?" This tends to give people who aren't web developers and designers an immediate disadvantage, since default themes / designs tend to be as minimalist as possible for a sort of 'blank canvas' approach; usable for beginners, but flexible for advanced users.
Does that mean you need a great theme to be successful? The answer is
no, but it could go a long way in our increasingly visual world.
The
ProBoards Theme Library has a lot of themes you can choose from to either enhance the default template or break entirely away from it. Alternatively, you can visit theme resource forums like
Adoxography 2.0 and
Gangnam Style to see if there's anything you like there.
You don't need to have a brilliant, elegant theme to attract people, but the closer you come to meeting modern day standards, the easier it will be for people to focus on content instead of being distracted by the aesthetics.
A Second Look - Content:This one is the one I really wanted to talk about, because you've fallen into what I think is the #1 new admin mistake:
too much content. To be blunt, having 1 member and a post count of 117 is hecking overwhelming. I mentioned in your other thread about learning how to create community-oriented content, so I'll go into it a little bit here.
As an example, I picked a random thread on your forum:
Monster Facts: Ceratosaurus. The content of your post is very factual, yes, but how is a user supposed to interact with this? Put yourself in the perspective of a member. This is pure information, a statement of fact. The Ceratosaurus has this name, has this classification, has this diet, has this size, is from this era.
What does one say to this? "Neat!" "Cool!" or just nothing. A user cannot interact with this in a way that will generate discussion, which is the lifeblood of a forum.
I know you put a lot of work into this, but my suggestion would be to
get rid of it. I am truly sorry to say it, because I know nothing sucks more than working hard on something only to hear someone else say to get rid of it. But what you've done here is turned your forum into a poor man's Wikipedia with no verifiable, peer-reviewed sources. I mentioned this in the other thread, but I can get facts from
anywhere. What forum users are looking for is
community, not an encyclopedia.You need to shift your focus from
giving people facts to
generating discussion. Why should we talk about the ceratosaurus? What is worth discussing? Is there some recent controversy? Were new fossils discovered? Was there a new bone discovered that changes the way we look at ceratosaurus?
I see you added a board for dinosaur news. That's great! That is the kind of thing that generates discussion.
My suggestions overall would be:
- scrap all the Dino 411 threads; users can go to wikipedia for literally any of this information, which is backed by cited sources for further reading.
- scrap all the specialty boards for "Dino Fun". You do not have the activity levels to justify having so many specialised boards; you can always add more if necessary, but right now this is just overwhelming. Having a single board for "Dino Fun" would suffice, and you can break it up later should you need to.
- Move your Dino Decrees to the top of the forum. Forum rules / regulations / info are generally the first things a prospective member wants to see, and hiding it at the bottom of the forum establishes the wrong kind of hierarchy. Your forum organisation should generally follow this sort of order: 1. Rules & Info, 2. your primary discussion focus, and 3. Anything that's off-topic. My recommendation would be to have your forum as: Dino Decrees, Dinosaur News, Dinosaur Ages, Dino Fun (with ONE dino fun board + the Rex nest).
- Add a place for affiliation and/or advertisment. Personally, I don't like advertisements and disallow them on forums I run. However, they can be a useful tool for spreading your link around the internet more which allows google bots to index your forum more frequently. Similarly affiliation works in the same manner but also connects your forum to another via visual graphics and serves as a sort of... endorsement to visitors that hey, this forum is worth checking out.
I hope this helps. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. (: Best of luck!