forum review me please

[Joseph]

Forum URL:www.findingjesustoday.com
-Request Type: (Full review)
-Extra Notes:

[Cafetin]

You are the next in line.

Thanks for being patient.

[Cafetin]

It is in progress now.

[Cafetin]

Sorry for the delay and thanks for your kind patience.

"Nothing is personal in a review"

My rating table:
91-100 - Unexpectedly Awesome
76-90 - Awesome
61-75 - Pretty Nice
41-60 - Average
21-40 - Below Average
0-20 - Fail

Graphics:
- Theme: Light theme on a dark background. Mostly matching colors. So generally, there is nothing wrong with it. But the "Login", "Facebook", "Help" and "Register" buttons, up on the index page (I mean those yellow ones), are blocking some parts of your banner. And that is no good. Try to move it somewhere else if you can. And I see you`ve got a toolbar down on the page. I don`t know what are the contents of it but I`m sure it is useful. Also you have a shoutbox which is good too. And I just realized you have a "Thread Display Option" menu in the forums. That is very a nice addition. (6/10)
- Banner: As I stated above, it is not visible at some parts but I will ignore that now. So... It is mostly a piece of text. But it looks like the letters were made from stone. Which can be a metaphor in my opinion. Cause religion is just as old as some ancient rocks in the world nowadays. And I think we all know what the light effect represents on the tip of the big "J" in the banner. I like it cause it fits just fine with the subject of the forum itself. Although the end of the light around the text is too sharp I think. Maybe you can just make it fade more smoothly. (7/10)
- Navigation Bar: Nothing special here. No buttons. Just text. Not even some little icons I can comment on. But I like the little arrows which are displayed under the text when you pull your mouse over it. Oh and there are some "sub-navigation bar" under the "Forum" and "What`s new?" buttons. That is nice too. But still... No pictures. So after all I still found something to talk about here. (5/10)
- Icons: The icons for the notification of "New" or "No New Post" on the index are made from stars inside sphere. On new content it is blue, on the opposite it is grey. Well... nothing special in my opinion, except that they does not match with the "Icon Legend" on the bottom of the page. I never seen anything like that, so it must be something with the theme itself. Either way, try to correct that. In the forums these icons are little mails. And here comes my "dilemma". I see that if there is no new post in a thread it is a closed letter and if it has some new posts it is an open one. So how is that? In real life, if you get a letter and you did not read it yet, it is still closed, am I right? But maybe it is just me (although logic dictates what I just said here). The topic buttons like "New Tread" or "New Reply" are not some extra ones either. Although everything matches the theme, I am not impressed with these icons at all. Maybe it is the theme which I don`t like. (5/10)
The sum of all is 23/40. Request or make some new graphics for your forum. It can mean a lot to guests like me.

Categories & Forums:
This is the part where I can`t really say any useful tips, as I have no idea what forums or categories does a site like this need. I will just say my opinion now. So, the "Spread the Gospel" and "General Knowledge" categories are definitely needed, Just like the "General Information". The "Warzone" is a really good idea, in my opinion. It just missing the actual topics now. Start conversations there, too. Everybody has an opinion and they will share it if the subject is interesting. I don`t know the exact plans for the "Counsel Meeting" and the "Prayer Meeting" but it seems empty right now. And it is private. That`s all I can say now. Maybe it would be the best if you would ask your members what they want to see in the forum in the future. (14/20).

Usergroups:
I did not find any place to see how many you`ve got but assuming from the memberlist, you have two right now. Administrators and Super Moderators. As your site is young, it is enough for now. Strange thing that you did not make them standing out at all. I mean no different colors and such. Maybe you want your members to see when an administrator or a moderator replies to their topics. So I suggest you make the colors different at least. (10/20)

Activity:
The forum is about 24 days old and has 7 registered user. That is 0,33 new member each day. That`s a small number. The number of posts is 1051 at the moment. But the number of topics is 1009. When I saw that first I thought "How can that be?". Unfortunately I had to realize that there are not too many answers in any topic on the forum. Statistically over 90% of the posts was made by the founder itself which would not be so bad considering that it is a new site but there are no replies to them. In the last 24 hours there were 3 members who connected (I know this from their profile). Two of them are the admins themselves, which is natural, and a moderator. Not much, but again, you have only 7 registered members so basically it is 42% of the members. Also I have seen that the admin has posted more than one from the same topic. For example, make a search with "Be thankful" and you will get 3 topics with the same content. That is not right in my opinion. You should delete those duplicated topics. It seems as if you are spamming your own forum. (9/20)

More:
Keep or start advertising on a daily basis, and make some graphical changes. Start good dabates to boost the interest in people.

And so the sum is 56/100 this time. Your forum is in the middle of the Average rank from my perspective in its current state. I hope you get some active members in the near future.

[Joel]

30 BoilingPoints deducted

Thats a very good review Cafetin;)

[Cafetin]

Thanks, Joel.

No response from the requester.
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