Another Adminzone Review

[danielmichel]

This one is much better than the last.
Were just starting out people, so pay close attention to the needed improvements she outlined and look for them in the future.

Here's what they said:

First Impressions
Nice looking board but a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to view any of the actual content without a log in.

Look

Guest's Outlook:
When viewing as a guest you are presented with a refreshingly light colored skin paired with a wonderful looking logo/header. The skin is easy on the eyes but none of the forums are readable to guests, only the topic list.

Logos and Banners: I love the old NYC theme banner and think it fits well with the board and graphics but I am not fond of the flash ads in the logo/header. I find it really detracts and highly suggest it be moved somewhere else, possibly under the logo/banner? One other thing is the text on the right side of the banner is very difficult to read, not sure if this is intentional.

Quantity of Forums: There are currently 18 forums. Some of your forums are not very active and have a minimal amount of topics/posts. I would recommend condensing, possibly converting them to sub-forums if you feel the need to keep them. Seeing too many empty or inactive forums on a board can sometimes be a turn off to prospective members.

Advertisements: ads are located on the left side of the board and are fine. They do not distract but highly recommend you do something different with the one in the banner.

Color scheme: The first skin is pleasing grays and blues, easy on the eyes, second skin is a black, charcoal and white with a banner logo that changes when you refresh the page. Both of these are well done and easily read.

Styles: VB 3.6.3 forum with 2 custom skins, one light (new easy fixed) and one dark (24-7 NY Dev) as well as the defaults.

Page and Image Sizes: fast easy loading, not heavy on the graphics.
Missing one image on portal and Faq link is 404 in new easy fixed skin.

Favicon, Buttons, and Other Graphics: some original/default and some custom.
After logging in, takes you to a much darker skin but still very nice. I would prefer to see a graphic for no new posts vs. text, especially being a graphic site but that’s just my own preference. On this skin, the links are a little hard to see.

Feel

Theme: Old NYC theme which is complimentary to the name of your site. Welcome PM is a nice touch with your introduction about yourself and your forum. Only thing that surprised me was there isn’t much in the way of anything associated with NY on your board.

Sense of Community: 8 staff members, 314 members total. Staff is fairly active as well as a handful of members. Need to work on improving your member participation, which I see you are trying with a contest.

Post count and Quality: 4713 posts, some are great discussions and some are just idle game answers. Not much going on in some of the forums but I’ve already mentioned my suggestion for that. You have several great tutorial links and information for your members.

Participation Overview: Seems like your members really enjoy showcasing their work and are a great support in critiquing each other. This is great and should continue to help build your board membership in a positive way. Your Gallery seems to be actively enjoyed by your members as well.

Contests, Games, and Diversions: There are several of the classic type games such as last letter game, what are you listening to, word assoc, which help to build post count. I see you also have added a community contest forum where your members can post contest they’re running. These are well managed and not over taking the board.

Management
On the lighter skin, it’s not easy to tell who is a moderator, admin, etc. This really needs to be better defined. Even hard to decipher on the darker skin but at least if you’re looking for it, you’ll eventually see it. It’s nice to see an active staff and everything appears well organized.

Points of Registration: Appears to be the default

Rules, FAQ, and Privacy Policy: Appears to be the default. You may want to add your own TOS at some point.

Quantity and Activity of Staff: 8 staff members (3 admins, 5 moderators), which seem to be fairly active.

Overall Impressions
I think you have a great start to what can become a very good resource forum for tutorials and graphics but only if you can continue to build your membership and keep your current ones active.

Summary of Recommended Changes
As for changes, I would like to see you open up some of the forums so guest can view actual posts. Having all the forums closed off can be a major turn off to many people, myself included. I usually pass up on boards where I can’t read through at least some of the content.

That flash ad in your banner needs to go, (I’m sorry, please don’t hate me, lol). I am not a fan of flash, especially where this is located. You have this attractive banner which should be unobstructed by anything.

Being that you are a graphic/web development board, I would really recommend that all the default graphics be replaced. I think this would only make sense

Condense your forums so that those, which have minimal activity, are not so visible. I would suggest either eliminating entirely or making them sub-forums.

With the title of your site and logo have you considered adding a forum about NY, possibly even about employment opportunities or challenges of a web developer?

[iughk]

Another staff member says

"An unofficial feed-back .. I like the header .. it's looking nice. This old style NY look is quite original and nice. I like the idea. Keep up the good work "

[Contention]

The thread is located @ http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=30350