I own a site where I offer free hosting.

Xen Web Hosting

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Xen Web
Offering FREE ad-free hosting with features such as cpanel, fantastico, PHP and MySQL support, and more

Initial Impression
I thought this forum wasn't a forum since it was all taken up the space by banners, links until i scroll down i finally found it was a forum. The space on top is all taken up by nothing important ex: banner space(30%).
Organization and Feel
I feel the forum doesn't not appeal and look good. The welcome message is too long.
As you can see takes up too much space. It will find you uncomfortable to keep on scrolling and scrolling...
Next as you see it the thing that is suppose to be in the very bottom the stats. I thought the template was messed up because the stats wasn't suppose to be here. Well i found out it really was here but this is a bad idea. It takes alot of space and people have to scroll down even more to reach the other categories. If it was at the bottom and they dont want to see it they dont have to scroll there.

Skin and Modifications
The forum could have more glossy effect not that dull look. It could look better and you could add more graphics to heat things up. The icons that show new post, old post, lock post is too simple and its too orginal not graphical at all.
Guidelines and Staff
Nice rule there but you dont have to shout to make your member know. Making it caps isn't just going to make them listen and sometimes make them annoy. Your signature at the bottom is bit of childish and kind of ruins your maturity in your forum. Its hard to tell who are the staff and i think there is only one( correct me if im wrong) the admin which is you. I think if you want to maintain those big free host forums you should hire some staff or find some that is trustable and not easy to mess up your forum.
Recommended Changes
-Make the forum more glossy and feel better
-hire more staff
-make the banner space smaller or delete it
-make the welcome smaller
-merge some categories so people doens't have to go so long
-move the stats down to the bottom
-make the rules more mature and more detailed
-more graphics

Your screen must be small because I knew it was a forum right away. I also wasn't distracted by the ad space.

Though I dont know why the stats are at the top. Also the banner isn't aligned with the rest of the header.

No, I agree with talkwebz on this one. I'm on 1024x768 and I couldn't see any categories/forums above the fold.

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I went to Vegas, and all I got was this Blister. - true story!

Yeah, I concur I'm on 1280x1024 and all the forum stuff didn't begin until after the fold.

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N1ck's monitor must be vertical or something.

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I went to Vegas, and all I got was this Blister. - true story!

lol no the way he said it, made it sound like it was just banners at the top. I too can't see the forums but I could tell it was a forum. Its just the way he worded it, to me it made me think he couldn't tell it was a forum from any aspect.

Well, I understood him. . . does that make me crazy? or experienced? LOL

yeah, we all admins here, can TELL it's a forum, but can't SEE any forums above the fold. (have to scroll)

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I went to Vegas, and all I got was this Blister. - true story!

-Make the forum more glossy and feel better
I'll keep it the way it is

-hire more staff
In the future

-make the banner space smaller or delete it
I'll see what I can do

-make the welcome smaller
Is it too detailed?

-merge some categories so people doens't have to go so long
No one on my board complained. Maybe you should take your own advice because you have twice as many forums.

-move the stats down to the bottom
I'll do that.

-make the rules more mature and more detailed
I didn't write them. I'm not creative with words so it'd be hard to write detailed rules.

-more graphics
Why?

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Xen Web
Offering FREE ad-free hosting with features such as cpanel, fantastico, PHP and MySQL support, and more

Initial Impression

Initial impressions are meant to be just that - and with this board I found myself bored. The matte appearance of the forum alongside the dull coloration made the forum seem stale. The enormous REGISTER NOW seemed to scream out at me which further put me off. As a guest first visiting the site I would be reluctant to dig much deeper.

However I have to say that when I switched the theme to Red from Blue the forum really stood out quite a bit more as not only the colors and header changed but so, too, did the layout.

Organization and Feel

The forum is supposed to be about Web Hosting but there are only three forums about web hosting and sixteen other forums. Four of those are about Entertainment. If I were honestly searching for a forum about web hosting I would leave at this point.

The programming and web design forum and the community forum are probably good resources for a captive hosting audience, but they make up the bulk of your forums. Consider collapsing these while expanding on the hosting end of things since your forum is there for hosting clients.

Skin and Modifications

As mentioned in the initial impressions the skin (blue) is very dull and could use some livening up. Red is better but still not all that great. Basically the forum seems to lack character in your choice of skins.

As for mods the sites of the moment I assume are hosting clients which for your site makes great sense. Consider calling more attention to these and removing the advertisement below the navbar. Additionally I would remove the PayPal donation button (or make it a footer text link or other less obtrusive placement) and here's why: presumably your forum is there to support your clients who presumably are already paying you for a service. Asking them to then give you money is (in my opinion) tacky.

Other mods seem to be all advertising related. This is a personal choice, but I think in your forum you should tone this down.

Guidelines and Staff

Rules are curiously titled "Feedback & Suggestions Rules" which led me to believe at first I was reading rules just for giving feedback or suggestions. Consider renaming this simply "Rules for Posting" or something equally less confusing. I later realized rules existed on several forums though they were all the same.

TalkWebz gave the advice in an earlier reply to your review request about removing the ALL CAPS in your rules. This still applies. It is taken AS SHOUTING AND NOBODY LIKES BEING SHOUTED AT.

I was taken aback at the way in which the Admin allows members to be treated to the point of no longer wanting to offer you my time in giving a review. In one thread [http://xenweb.net/forums/showthread....71.html?t=171] a new member actually states:
"How rude of you people, I don't feel welcomed at all."

To which who I assume is an Admin responds:
"WELCOME!! just follow the rules thats all"

Even if this person is not an Admin (I assumed he was because he was the one posting Rules Stickies in the forum) where was the Admin to come save the day and rescue the valuable member?

I stopped looking after I encountered another thread [http://xenweb.net/forums/showthread....38.html?t=138] where the tone of rude posts was tolerated.

So far I have tried to find redeeming value in every forum I have reviewed, but I owe it to you to give my honest assessment of your forum and in a nutshell it goes something like this:

If you don't take care of your members and don't put in effort into making your forum an on-topic valuable resource for your guests you will not succeed. Asking members to pay for the forum through donation while at the same time being rude and allowing others to be rude is honestly arrogant.

Recommended Changes

• Remove ALL CAPS from rules
• Work on the skin - liven things up
• Change the attitude - move away from "RULES RULES RULES" and into a culture of support for your guests
• Remove the PayPal donations button or at least move it somewhere less conspicuous
• Remove or move the top banner ad and bring your forums closer to your navigation controls. That banner would fit in the empty header space.

Attached: Screenshot of forum at time of review

Afterwards

I went looking deeper and did find some decent folks posting and active Moderators. However, recognizing this is my first visit to the forum I represent your potential guests. My experience in the short time I visited would not normally be followed by further investigation (but I want to give a fair review and decided it required I look more). I suspect other likely guests visiting your forum for the first (and last) time would not give you the same consideration.

Attached Images

Xen Web Hosting - Powered by vBulletin.png (92.1 KB, 4 views)

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