Board Name: Song of the Wolf
Board URL: http://z15.invisionfree.com/Song_of_the_Wolf
Board Description: SotW is a realistic wolf roleplay for rpers that are literate and above. We aim for a fun roleplay and request that you post at least twice a week. There are about nine members and each have at least one or two characters.
Specific things you would like a comment on (optional): Everything. :) And thanks for your time!

This was a difficult evaluation for me, as I don't role play or have much experience with those that do I hope you find my comments helpful. I tried to tailor them to your board purpose rather than just looking at the board from a generic critical viewpoint.

Strengths

• You have done well at creating an alternate reality in your wolf-world. There are lots of ideas and opportunities for members to choose plot lines and develope their characters.
• Your graphics help create a sense of the imaginary world as well.

Weaknesses

• Strict rules about deletion for inactivity may be keeping your forum smaller than it could be.
• Portal is a wasted link.
• Announcement box is huge. Could be off-putting to those who hate scrolling.
• Blue text in the shoutbox is unreadable, even when highlighted.
• The forum does not look active. There are few topics in most forums, and several with no topics. It may be that you have activity somewhere that a guest cannot see, but it is not evident that this is an active community, or where your 1,000+ posts could be.

Recommendations

• Recommend replacing the default images left (navigation marker, submenu images, post buttons, up arrow, topic options etc.) It will give you continuity of your created environment, which I think is probably more important for RP boards than other genres.
• Show all viable topics. Create an archive for dead topics so that people can see that there has been much content on your board.
• Since your site is character-driven, consider some kind of gallery for "family" pictures, or character comment blogs. Maybe some character-based guessing games or factoid scavenger hunts. Things that would help establish the characters even more.

That's just for this activity check because there are members who left the site and I want to delete their accounts.

What does that mean exactly? Sorry, i'm not terribly bright....wasted as in I don't need it?

Thanks for letting me know! I'll ask the person who made it for me how I can make it smaller.

Stupid old me deleted all the very very old topics, but I started putting them in an archive I believe. I'll make that viewable to guests.

That's a good idea! Thanks for your advice. I'll try the ideas that you gave me above.

You have a link to your portal in the submenu....which is prime real estate on a board. However, you are not using your portal, so it is wasted. With a bit of coding, you could either remove theportal link, or you could make it your front page and really do something with it. Site news can be imported, or you could create a new forum that delivers exactly what you want to display there. (Controls for that are all in ACP > System Settings > IP Dynamic Lite Setup) That could be the place to put a gallery, for instance.

Ooh, a gallery of pictures could be cool, of every character on the site. Or I might make it the front page. I'll definitely think about it, and possibly ask a few members of my site to see what they think.