Dark PerFectioN

Site Name: Dark PerFectioN

URL: Dark PerFectioN Forums - Home

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Software Type/Version: IP.Board 2.3.X

Launch Date: 3-November 07

The site is for my Halo 3 clan - Dark PerFectioN. The site is ultimately the main place for members to come and discuss just about... anything.


Review account (high ranking usergroup) for anyone doing a serous review:

Username: Revie
Password: QWERT

 

When I first saw this, I knew right away I had to review. Sorry for taking so long, but I have had a lot to do. I want to say, I am in the same position as you. I was a halo fanboy myself. Started in the Bungie area, moved onto forums, helped forums, watch big groups grow and die. I know all about H3F and all those areas. I am familiar with it all. Without further ado, I shall present my review.

I first entered your site through your CMS and I was quite impressed. Despite the fact it was a clantemplates skin, it was a nice refresher. The brown colors were interesting because I haven't seen many brown gaming sites. With that, it works well, but I wasn't quite sure why you have two totally separate colors for the forum and the main page. At first, I thought I was on another site, maybe an affiliate, but I realized I was on the same. Either way, its a solid skin, but it doesn't match. The logo is nice, but very plain. I like the Web 2.0 look, but like I said, plain is boring. The skin is pretty solid. Nothing too extreme, yet it compliments the niche well. The color scheme is nice. The colors aren't bright and no one color is stronger than the other which is great. I like the icons. The halo helmets are a good touche. I like how you have the halo icons all around, except on the bottom. You have cartoon people instead of something dealing with Halo. Maybe change that? It's the little things that make a difference. The Favicon reminds me of the homepage, like what I said, doesn't match. Over all, its pretty solid. It isn't intense, custom skin, but it has some uniqueness to it.

From what I see, you use a CMS, Forums, Gallery, and an Arcade. These are all things a gaming site uses which is good to see that you as well take advantage of such features. With the CMS, I would have it match with the Forums or vice versa. Stuff like that I am anal about because I want to make everything perfect. There is really nothing on the CMS about the forums besides the link. Perhaps add an RSS feed from the forum or something. That way it works in sync with each other. The forums are IPB. I am not a huge fan, but to each his own and I won't critique based on that at all. The gallery, well I will get into that.

Originally, I tried to log in with the info provided. Unfortunately, I was unable to do so. That's fine, this is an old thread, you probably removed the account. What I did have a problem with was registering. I tried time after time to register, but the spam protection image kept telling me I was wrong. After about ten minutes, I gave up. This is huge if you want to increase membership. I was using the latest version of Firefox if you must know. With this, I can't say if the features work because I couldn't access them. From what I can see, you haven't done any Search Engine Optimization. This is going by the front-end. Going on the back-end, I don't know what you did. As for the URL's, they aren't pretty and I am an advocate of that. The only thing I would change is make the sections viewable by guests so guests and bots could view the site for better use. So, with that said, I wasn't able to do much since I couldn't register.

The layout is basic, very basic and I like it that way. It works great for this forum. You have everything that is needed. If your members do graphics, I would add a section for that, but besides that, I would make that. Besides that, there is really not too much to say about it all. I like it. Nice work on this. Its very clean, neat, and to the point.

Like I said, I could not register on your site, nor could I view it. So, I am not able to fairly review the activity of the site. I am not sure whether or not the activity is great, but from by the looks of it, you are pretty active for just a clan forum. With that said, I assume you guys are all friendly since you are clan mates. Perhaps there is great content, I can't tell once again. What I am glad to say is you didn't taint your site with ads. Overall, its a solid site and its a nice atmosphere. It truly makes me want to start gaming again.

Overall, the site is a very nice site. It looks like you did quite a job from the bungie group you were once on. There really wasn't any wow factors that popped out a guest. I think the only thing that turned me off is that your community seems closed off (mentality wise) because its a clan forum, but besides that great work. I like it!

Hope you enjoyed my review! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

The main page will hopefully receive a huge update soon, and colors and all will match perfectly. I'm offering 200$ to the person who's in the process of doing it, so I'm expecting some good results.

I originally had reCAPTCHA but for whatever it just won't work at all. I do know that spam protection does work though, even though it is probably harder to read.

SEO isn't something I'm good at.

Guests can't really view much simply because it's a clan, a tight community for sure (great members!). I give guests the permissions to view anything that's needed to get a better look into the clan and what we're here for, but as for the rest, I'd rather them register.

Not many are, but I've got one. "Clan Creations - For all of your photos, artwork, stories, projects, music, etc. Show that creative side!"

It is, but then again it isn't. I like to keep content available only to members, but as you'll see numerous places, we're always open to new members joining regardless of what games they even like.


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Thanks so much for the review, best one I've ever got. I guess the password might of been wrong, but I changed it to "asdqwe" - works fine.

 

Also, the favicon is a little cooling looking version of the official clan emblem. More information can be found about that in our FAQ page.

 

Yes, this is always a good idea. I don't know IPB that well, but what about IPB Content to make the homepage?

reCAPTCHA works...with everything else. I read it right and I even had a friend read it once. It's impossible. As for SEO, just read a ton of articles. That's what I do. Matt Cutts is great to read as he is directly from Google. I am no SEO expert, but ask and such. For the guests, I say show it, but if you are that concerned about that, have robot texts and maybe a separate usergroup for robots so they can index your site. That will help SEO.

I just assumed that because I have been on many gaming sites and with that come graphics.

I understand what you mean. It reminds me of the older clans I was apart of. Its good that you allow them because it allows you to expand.

No problem for the review. Always here to help!

I figured, but I didn't want to assume. You guys are definitely a halo clan :p

 

I don't plan on anything IPB related to be incorporated into it, just as nothing IPB related is incorporated now.

I know it's good, but it actually does not work on my forum. I must have done something to mess it up and now it just won't actually allow you to register because nothing you enter (when it is right) will be accepted. I just had to resort to the one that's there now.

 

To each his own. There is always Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla, etc...Even plain html.

Whatever you choose, but I can tell you I wasn't able to register using the one you had now. Imagine other prospective members.

 

It's going to be based off of Bungie.net's homepage.

Other members seem to be able to register just fine, no complaints yet...

 

That is a cool idea. By the way, I still am unable to register. I wanted to for the review and I tried before I reviewed because I like gaming sites. So I guess this can be considered a complaint.

 

Maybe it's your browser? I can test it for you.

 

The latest version of Firefox.

 

Dramatically opened up the forum sections for guests.