[Andrew Mooney]

Name of Forum: Hogwarts101
Link: http://s14.invisionfree.com/hogwarts101/index.php
Number of Posts: 1,598
Number of Members: 70
Other notes: Well It Has Only Been Up For A Bit Over A Month And Already It Has 70 memebrs.I Am Making iT Smaller With HAving Subforums Like,Insteadof Seeing On The Clubs On The Front I Will Make A Forum Called "Clubs" And Inside Will Be All The Subforums For Each Club.I Have Been Advertising On LOADS Of Sites Over 200! But I Only Did That Yesterday And Today So Hopefully It Will Bring In Some More Members Soon.

[Michael]

Post Count: 3/10
Member Count: 3/10
Skin and Images: 9/10
Layout: 7/10
Administration: 8/10
Moderation: 8/10
Member Activity: 8/10
Originality: 5/10
Overall: 5.68/10

Additional Notes: Hmm, i would have to quickly point out that on first impressions there are some important aspects you are failing to make use of. Firstly, the header template is full of unimportant aspects such as topsites, news and announcements, the time, and a team legend this is all unneccessary and diverting away from the important content - the actual forums themselves. Try moving everything but the News and Announcements module into the footer template, this way they can still be accessed if neccessary.

Secondly, the forum layout needs ALOT of work done, one of the most common mistakes a user will make is adding in hundreds of forums relating to many different issues the administrator can possibly think of relating to their particular forum theme so to not alienate anyone. But as a matter of fact all this does is make your forums appear much less active, much less important and sadly ... dead. Combine forums together to make them appear more friendly and communal. A good start.

[Cole]

I hope I am allowed to review.

The activity, post, count, and member count are all in a time/x ratio, so my ratings may look a little weird.

Post Count: 8/10
Member Count: 4/10
Skin and Images: 4/10
Layout: 4/10
Administration: 9/10
Moderation: 8/10
Member Activity: 7/10
Originality: 3/10
Overall: 5.87/10

Additional Information
I really dislike the header. First of all, the topsite buttons should be at the bottom of the page, tell me if I am wrong, but you want posts and registrations, being at the top of some secondary topsite lists should be a low priority. Next, there are broken images in the header, try to note that the header should be the most fantastic and busiest part of the page, as the lurkers always see the header first. Another note about the header, the logo is not creative and lacks activity, try to fix that by learning the gimp or photoshop.

Another style note: The whole forum is almost all one color, try to alternate between at least two colors to activate the lurker's eyes. Getting registered users is just as much psychology as it is anything else.

Another thing I see, is waaaay too many forums. I would start with at maximum 5-8 forums, that might even be going overboard too much. Also, I would bold the register hyperlink, as you want lurkers to register (I might be wrong, but I do.)

Overall, a nice start, but I would highly recommend you take Michael's and my suggestions to keep your community growing.

Since you are on an invisionfree account, I would recommend possibly a .tk domain so you don't have to remember the "http://serverserver.invision....".

[Slack]

Originally Posted By: Cole Since you are on an invisionfree account, I would recommend possibly a .tk domain so you don't have to remember the "http://serverserver.invision....".

.tk domains are evil. Pop-ups and other nasties. I say Shrink it instead ;D

[Dave]

Post Count: 6/10
Member Count: 2/10
Skin and Images: 1/10
Layout: 2/10
Administration: 5/10
Moderation: 2/10
Member Activity: 7/10
Originality: 4/10
Overall: 3.8/10


Additional Information

K I am am just taken aback form the second I look at this forum not unlike one i fixed through my service a week ago. First thing too many people with cp access is just a bad idea alot of critical data can be lost quickly if one of them is loose with a password. Second dare I say is the layout your forum is way too long and it will be confusing to many many manyfirst time viewers and this by itself will carry traffic away. Both of these can be fixed with forum management techniques come back and PM in a week as Im going to be offering a first ever crash course on that very subject. In the meantime please consider you most active mods as the ones you want to keep and do the same with your categories and forums the purpose of which is slimming down these confusing features.

Positvie comment- Your post count it is pretty good based on members just make sure it doesn't burn out too quick.

[Andrew Mooney]

Ok Thanks For The Help

[ShinLi]

Post Count: 5/10
Member Count: 7/10
Skin and Images: 5/10
Layout: 3/10
Administration: 7/10
Moderation: 7/10
Member Activity: /10
Originality: 3/10
Overall: 5/10

Additional Notes: Alright, first off all, I saw this forum a few times passing by. And everytime I get annoyed by how streched out the skin is, and how ugly that looks. I'm guessing it has to do with the banner...and yeah, then there's the banner. The banner isn't high quality. A banner will say allot for a forum, and I think banners are pretty important for HP forums as well. The banner is almost the first thing a guest

* ShinLimber will get to see. Also the images used in the forum descriptions arent really appealing to me, and I get a 'cheap' feeling from them.

Maybe a tip for the buttons from the topsites, instead of having them in the header, place them in the footer, so they'll appear beneath your statistics box.

The first Catagory has simple to much forums in it, it looks messy. Try to get some as subforums, or get half of them in a new catagory. Then going down the forum, there you have catagorys with only 1/2 forums inside of it. Catagory's, to look good, should at least have 3 forums in them. Also the ordering of your forums is confuzing.

I"m a big HP fan, but this isn't a forum that appeals to me at all. Work on the forum layout/appearance, and it'll become allot better ^^

[Andrew Mooney]

Well,Thanks Everyone For Your Hep And All And I Have Now Gotten 83 Memebrs And 1,796 Posts And I Need A Bit Of Help With The Skin.How Do I Make It So It Isn't Stretched As That Is How I Got It?

[ShinLi]

Did you wrap your banner in center tags? If so remove them. But I did check the width of your banner, and it should fit tho. Maybe your forum is that stretched by a code. But I'm not that big in coding XD