Gaming XP's 2nd Review

Your Forum Review
'Gaming XP'


General

First Impressions (Score: 18/20):
When I first entered your forum, I knew it was a gaming forum because of the nice, dark theme. You had a great banner, a great sub-banner (the small banner you have in your homepage message), and splendid categories and forums. I do have to say that your categories and discussion forums are extremely great and well organized. There's nothing actually wrong with the forum from my first impressions and sudden perspective that wouldn't make me register on your forum (and probably any other user.)
However, like in every forum, there's always going to be at least 1 mistake, so this review sill definitely cover most of the mistakes in your forum.

1. Index Appearance (Score: 9/10):
Your index is very nice for a forum with a general theme based around gaming. The whole skin looked very professional and it certainly does fit the forum itself. If you may know, dark themes are shown very elequent for gaming and music forums; hence light themes are more likely found on forums for other professional services and objectives. I do have to say that you wer every smart by only having widgets on one side of the forum. Having widgets on both sides of the forum makes the categories and forums look smushed, and the whole page would be just messy. You also have a great display banner on your forum, which is the sub-banner you have in your homepage message; plus, most professional forums do have small things around the forum to make their forum look impressing, and that sub-banner you have on your forum is that thing that makes your forum look impressing. Another thing that is pretty great on your index is your management of categories and forums. Usually, most forums have tons of discussion forums that don't even relate to the general theme of the forum, however, your discussion forums are basically perfect since they all are related to the whole 'gaming' general theme.
I did try to find something on your forum's index that would be a mistake, but I didn't find not one thing. Furthermore, since this is a review, there must be advice given to you to help your forum, and the only advice I have that is based on your forum is that the 'Moderators :' moto under each of your forums. That isn't necessarily needed on your forum, and it just makes your forum a little bad. This is the only flaw that I observed on your forum, and I do have to suggest that it should be attempted to be removed.
Overall, great work on your forum's index and appearence; keep it up.
2. Categories & Forums (Score: 9/10):
I stated before that there was nothing actually wrong with your discussion forums, and that is true. You based all of your discussion forums around your forum's general theme (which is 'gaming') and nothing else than that (except a small 'Miscellaneous' section on your forum.) I did, however, found that you did not have a 'Flash Gaming' discussion forum in your forum. Flash gaming is one of the most popular gaming utilities, and without that one section, your forum will be a little less descriptive and populated. I highly recommend you add that section to your forum as it would be needed, and it would also bring in more gaming discussion. Other than that keep up the good work on your discussional forums and categories; they will surely bring some good into your forum itself.


Layout total: 36/40

Forum Style

1. Banner & Navigation (Score: 6/10):
Banner
No offense, but your banner looks a little like Jalokim's "Trankwell Blue" default banner. This clarifies that your banner is not very original; you also just added a Mario character, and that was basically all you changed in the banner besides of the text. But, it is still a nice, professional-looking banner, and it actually fits the forum's theme. I do recommend you try making a new banner a little bit more original than your current banner, and try to add some more characters- just be creative and don't be shy to add a little more 'pyzam' next time. Wink
Navigation
There is not navigation bar in your forum, so this section of the review would not clarify in the outcome total of the 'Banner & Navigation' tab.
2. Images & Icons (Score: 10/10):
I have to say that I generally love your little dog in some of your forum icons. It's just like the 'mascot' of the forum. It is also a little original, and I have not seen these icons on any other forum before. Another thing I like about your icons is that they actually fit the discussion forums- I could just look at one of your icons without even reading the description of the discussion forum, and I know what that section is basically about. Great job on your icons; there is nothing wrong with them to me at all.


Style total: 16/20

Forum Moderation & Groups

1. Staff Population (Score: 7/10):
Administration- 1 member(s)
In total, you have 1 member in your administration, and that only member is yourself. You may only have 1 administrator, but that is a very positive thing in your forum. There should at least be 1 administrator on the average forum ranging within 1-30 members. Your forum has exactly 30 members. This is an extremely positive point in your forum. It is very good to have only 1 administrator (in regards of only you being the administrator) administrating the forum and running the whole forum. You do not want many leaders on the forum making every decision. However, once the ratio of members becomes higher, the amount of your adminsitration should increase depending on the amount of users; so be sure to increase your administration once your ratio of members to your forum becomes higher.
Moderation- 4 member(s)
In total, you have 5 members in your moderation including yourself. This counts for both your 'Global Moderation' group and 'Moderation' group. You have exactly 2 moderators on your forum. About 2 moderators is the approximate amount for almost every newly created forum. You don't really need many moderators running your forum. I do recommend that you remove at least 2-3 moderators from your forum and wait to recruit 1-2 more moderators once your member ratio to your forum becomes at least 40-60 members.
2. Staff/User Groups (Score: 8/10):
In total, you have 7 usergroups in your forum. They are all very good groups to have on a miscellaneous forum like yours, but 2 of the goups do not even need to be on the forum ('VIP Members' and 'GFX Designer.') Yes, these are great groups to have on your forum, but I would still set the VIP Members group as hidden, and just remove/hide the GFX Designer group. Rremoving/hiding these two groups isn't highly necessary, but they aren't very needed in your forum.


Usergroup total: 15/20

Forum Activity

1. Post/Member Ratio (Score: 10/10):
You only have an approximate 30 members and 1035 messages on your forum. In an objective meaning, each one of your members have created at least 34 messages in total percentage on your forum. This is a very great objective for your forum. On some forums, users just basically join on the forum to see how it is, and then they leave because the aren't very fond to it and they make no posts whatsoever. The average amount of message that a user would normally make after joining and before leaving on a forum would be 5-10 messages. 35 messages from each user is a great thing to be proud of. Great job on the members to posts ratio of your forum; keep that up.
2. Member Activity (Score: 4/10):
I did state above that probably all of your members made at least 34 messages each on your forum, but some of those users probably just registered and didn't post but 2 posts. I did say that this was a bad thing, and as I scrolled through your forum, I found that some users didn't make but 5-10 messages. Yes, this is the normal amount of posts a new member would make before leaving the forum, but you still have to keep things running properly. Not every member on your forum is actually active, and some barely even post. I highly recommend you send out emails to all of the inactive users on your forum and kindly ask them to please continue posting on your forum. I also suggest that advertising and comming up with some extraodinary features for your forum so more traffic and popularity will be led to it.


Activity total: 14/20

Overall Mark: 81/100



Conclusion

What could be done to improve your forum:
I do recommend you acknowledge all of the things stated in this review and overcome them wisely. There wasn't many flaws in your forum, and that got your forum an overall 81/100.This is a great score and you are very greatful to have passed.
What I do recommend you acknowledging most is your member activity. Get your old members back to posting again, and start advertising your forum to get some members and activity flowing throughout your forum.

The best thing I like about your forum:
I definitely like how your theme fits splendidly into your general theme of the forum, which is 'gaming.' I also like your forum icons.


Best of luck to you and your forum.