Post by Mixed on Aug 31, 2015 11:03:05 GMT -8
Hello Nixeon,
I have to be honest with you. I wasn't going to review your forum right away just for the fact I figured there had to be more than 4 reviews in your 35 pages of posts on this thread. But, let's face it. Your diligence in bumping and my curiosity now has me looking through your forum. I hope to give you some good suggestions, but time will tell with that one. Just to warn you though, all of my suggestions are coming from someone who isn't really a Pokemon fan. Ready anyway? Let's start!
First Impressions:
Ooo. Different layout. So far so good.
Banner:
Honestly, your forum banner took its sweet time loading tonight. I don't know if it was because of my wifi signal or the source but it was a bit irking only to see an empty space where the obviously banner should should have been for my first minute visiting your site. But I doubt you can help that anyway so let's get to some things you might be able to work with.
I like your banner. I see cherry blossoms and mountains, a lamp, your forum title and mascot, and... a festival? If you can, I would drop the blue with yellow lights in the background. It kind of breaks the banner as a whole. Also I think it would be nicer, if it looked more like the Pokemon mascot was actually part of the picture. This could likely be accomplished by putting more grass in front of his/her feet and tail. Doesn't have to cover him/her, but just should be enough that the Pokemon looks like he/she is standing in the grass. I mean, of course, if you wanted the Pokemon to be completely in the image then you would have to play with the lighting and such as well, but probably the grass would be enough to get the gist of it.
Your Side bar:
I really like your use of the side bar here. It is most definitely a very nice part of the whole layout but still it breaks up the overall board-y feel nicely. I'm not sure if I'm making sense here. Your side bar breaks up the forum and gives it a nice unsymmetrical feel while still being part of the whole. Better?
Great content too with your Welcome, Navigation, and Important Info right at the top for guests. (You may want to capitalize your "navigation" side bar container though.) Oh, I also noticed your "stats", "staff", and "credits" titles aren't capitalized. For consistency sake, I would recommend capitalizing them all.
Boards:
Normally I would recommend down-sizing the number of boards you have but in your case with such an active member base (33 online in the last 24 hours), I can see that is not a problem for you.
Everything seems in order in your getting started board. I can easily see where I need to go to even consider joining your forum. I just want to make sure you know that your help center title is in one word "Helpcenter"? I would recommend you dropping the "Graveyard" from your "Getting started" board. It seems quite contradictory that a visitor considering joining would see so MANY posts and threads in a graveyard. Hide it from guests, perhaps?
I was looking at your character center when I realized your sub-boards are listed above the actual board. I am wondering your reasoning behind this. As it stands, it looks like all of the accepted character sub-boards are still in the "workshop". Again, this seems a tad contradictory. Move the sub-boards to be under the board they belong to?
Your forum seems VERY active with all those posts. However, it feels a bit overwhelming. Do you have something to help new members and characters find an entry point?
Affiliates Box:
This is the one down next to your Cbox. First off, I think it's a great place for affiliates to be listed - right next to the box everyone hangs out at. However, it does look a little strange in terms of alignment. First I would adjust the Cbox height to match the height of your affiliates box. Second, I would shrink the affiliates box width but a little bit. There is empty space to the right of your affiliates and I don't know if that's meant to mean it would scroll to the left if there were more affiliates. Still, I think it would look nicer if the borders aligned with the content and the two boxes next to each other aligned with one another.
Rules and Guidelines:
First off, I like how you have a thread for each major point. It makes searching as a guest very easy.
Now, per my normal routine, I'll just read your basic rules for clarity. Now, I found something that confused me with your second rule - be active. How can a person be online once a week (you have written "one a week") but post every other day?
One your fourth point - PG13: Try to? Maybe just "Keep it... please"
I believe your eighth point should be broken into two. One about keeping the grammar and spelling mistakes to a minimum and one about setting the display name to the character name.
Overall, your basic rules are very nice and touch all the bases an RP-forum rule set should touch.
Overall Summary:
In general, I really like both your layout and color theme. I just think your layout could benefit from some tweaking in the sub-board placement. I think you have very active and successful forum though I would warn about hanging onto so many threads, especially for guests to see. It can become quite overwhelming.
Great work on building your forum and I admire you for your diligence in seeking out reviews. Good luck on the continued success of The Shula Region!
I have to be honest with you. I wasn't going to review your forum right away just for the fact I figured there had to be more than 4 reviews in your 35 pages of posts on this thread. But, let's face it. Your diligence in bumping and my curiosity now has me looking through your forum. I hope to give you some good suggestions, but time will tell with that one. Just to warn you though, all of my suggestions are coming from someone who isn't really a Pokemon fan. Ready anyway? Let's start!
First Impressions:
Ooo. Different layout. So far so good.
Banner:
Honestly, your forum banner took its sweet time loading tonight. I don't know if it was because of my wifi signal or the source but it was a bit irking only to see an empty space where the obviously banner should should have been for my first minute visiting your site. But I doubt you can help that anyway so let's get to some things you might be able to work with.
I like your banner. I see cherry blossoms and mountains, a lamp, your forum title and mascot, and... a festival? If you can, I would drop the blue with yellow lights in the background. It kind of breaks the banner as a whole. Also I think it would be nicer, if it looked more like the Pokemon mascot was actually part of the picture. This could likely be accomplished by putting more grass in front of his/her feet and tail. Doesn't have to cover him/her, but just should be enough that the Pokemon looks like he/she is standing in the grass. I mean, of course, if you wanted the Pokemon to be completely in the image then you would have to play with the lighting and such as well, but probably the grass would be enough to get the gist of it.
Your Side bar:
I really like your use of the side bar here. It is most definitely a very nice part of the whole layout but still it breaks up the overall board-y feel nicely. I'm not sure if I'm making sense here. Your side bar breaks up the forum and gives it a nice unsymmetrical feel while still being part of the whole. Better?
Great content too with your Welcome, Navigation, and Important Info right at the top for guests. (You may want to capitalize your "navigation" side bar container though.) Oh, I also noticed your "stats", "staff", and "credits" titles aren't capitalized. For consistency sake, I would recommend capitalizing them all.
Boards:
Normally I would recommend down-sizing the number of boards you have but in your case with such an active member base (33 online in the last 24 hours), I can see that is not a problem for you.
Everything seems in order in your getting started board. I can easily see where I need to go to even consider joining your forum. I just want to make sure you know that your help center title is in one word "Helpcenter"? I would recommend you dropping the "Graveyard" from your "Getting started" board. It seems quite contradictory that a visitor considering joining would see so MANY posts and threads in a graveyard. Hide it from guests, perhaps?
I was looking at your character center when I realized your sub-boards are listed above the actual board. I am wondering your reasoning behind this. As it stands, it looks like all of the accepted character sub-boards are still in the "workshop". Again, this seems a tad contradictory. Move the sub-boards to be under the board they belong to?
Your forum seems VERY active with all those posts. However, it feels a bit overwhelming. Do you have something to help new members and characters find an entry point?
Affiliates Box:
This is the one down next to your Cbox. First off, I think it's a great place for affiliates to be listed - right next to the box everyone hangs out at. However, it does look a little strange in terms of alignment. First I would adjust the Cbox height to match the height of your affiliates box. Second, I would shrink the affiliates box width but a little bit. There is empty space to the right of your affiliates and I don't know if that's meant to mean it would scroll to the left if there were more affiliates. Still, I think it would look nicer if the borders aligned with the content and the two boxes next to each other aligned with one another.
Rules and Guidelines:
First off, I like how you have a thread for each major point. It makes searching as a guest very easy.
Now, per my normal routine, I'll just read your basic rules for clarity. Now, I found something that confused me with your second rule - be active. How can a person be online once a week (you have written "one a week") but post every other day?
One your fourth point - PG13: Try to? Maybe just "Keep it... please"
I believe your eighth point should be broken into two. One about keeping the grammar and spelling mistakes to a minimum and one about setting the display name to the character name.
Overall, your basic rules are very nice and touch all the bases an RP-forum rule set should touch.
Overall Summary:
In general, I really like both your layout and color theme. I just think your layout could benefit from some tweaking in the sub-board placement. I think you have very active and successful forum though I would warn about hanging onto so many threads, especially for guests to see. It can become quite overwhelming.
Great work on building your forum and I admire you for your diligence in seeking out reviews. Good luck on the continued success of The Shula Region!