Info AdminJunkies Reviews

[Cedric]

From time to time, I'll be requesting reviews from various forums who offer it and post them here for our community to read upon what could be improved and what other members/guests opinions are. Reviews are always constructive feedback we could use to get better from. Of course our own members can always give their opinion on the reviews or you could review AdminJunkies yourself. This topic is to keep track of such things.


ZappaDPJ @ ForumPromotion Review:
First impressions are very good, the site theme and layout look professional with a welcome message and register button which makes clear the site aims and objectives. This is an area often overlooked. It's imperative that a forum landing page gives a clear idea of what it's about with an easy route to register. It's equally important that the landing page is not static because noone bookmarks a static landing page. The default landing page for Adminjunkies appears to be the forum listing which is obviously dynamic and fine.

I'm writing this review as unregistered because that is most likely to show up any shortfalls which tend to be missed and go unreported by staff and members alike. In this instance everything looks great and I particularly like the subtle but welcoming prompts to join the community.

The site speed is consistently good even on first load. That's testimony to the software, Xenforo, as well as a good choice of server provider. The site is easy to navigate and also easy on the eye.

Content categories are clearly defined with a reasonable amount of content for a new forum. It's important that some effort is now put into creating content for categories with low posting rates i.e. a single post in a forum is not a good look going forward. The Daily goal widget is a very nice touch as is the $250 Givaway. Admin based forums are arguable a saturated niche so anything that can be done to stimulate growth is good.

There's very little to criticize here. There are perhaps a couple of areas that could be improved upon but they are minor. Branding is important even with a new venture and it becomes essential with growth. I would therefore consider getting a professionally designed logo sooner rather than later. Any empty space needs to be filled or be gone! e.g. the Feedback Dashboard.

As I said earlier, this is a hard niche, even established forums seem to be struggling a little. It's clear a lot of thought and effort has been put into getting AdminJunkies up and running and you now need to build on that to try and gain some traction. Look around at what's in the news, especially anything relating to social media. Even if it's indirectly related, posting current events, epecially if they are a little controversial might help bring visitors that you can convert to members.

To conclude, I wish you luck with AdminJunkies, you've made a great start

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Pennywise @ ForumPromotion Review:
~Simple Review for AdminJunkies~
Reviewed by Pennywise

First Impressions:
I noticed right off the bat that you're advertising a $250 Giveaway Contest towards the top. I decided to follow through to the thread to see what kind of a contest it is (just for grins and giggles) and it sounds like a referral contest. I'm kind of skeptical about a referral contest because they are pretty common and I don't see a lot of people participating in them. The one thing that you have going for you is how much $$ you're offering through Paypal. If anyone participates in your contest, it'll be because of that. If you are going to do a contest, it would be more helpful to do one that kind of caters around the niche` on your forum instead of doing a generic one. I noticed that your "information" section and your "introduction area are at the bottom of the index page. I would think it would be more welcoming and more informative for those things to be at the top of your forum. I think that would go good with the contest you're hosting. I do like how easy it is to browse your forum and find whatever it is I'm looking for. That is one of my biggest pet peeves is not being able to navigate a forum and find what I'm looking for.

Average


I think your forum can go on to do great things and be a great place for administrators with just a little bit of help. I do wish you and your community all the best in the future.

 

[Cedric]

A new review has been done as I have requested. Pennywise is also known as @JennyorAlice on our forum. Feedback is welcome. And thanks again JennyorAlice!

~Full Review for Admin Junkies~
Reviewed by Pennywise

First Impressions:
One of the things I noticed is that you have a "Community of the Month", however, I noticed that it was towards the bottom of the index page. I think that's a great idea that you're going to pick a community to show off each month but I would think that would be better if it was towards the top of the index page instead of the bottom. Rather I would expect it to be closer to the top so that people would see that community instead of having to dig through most of the areas to find it at the bottom. I do like who your forum is easy to navigate and everything is easy to find. That's a big thing with me. I can't stand not being able to find my way around when I'm looking through a forum. There are other things that I have noticed during my first impression but I won't mention them here as I have mentioned them elsewhere in my review (no need to repeat myself).

Average

Appearance:
You have a nice, clean forum to look at. It's easy on the eyes. I do like the fact that the navigation bar follows you as you browse up or down the index page.....it's always right there with you. The banner/header of the forum looks nice but I'm having trouble trying to figure out what it has to do with an admin or webmaster forum. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't look bad....it fits in pretty nice with the rest of the colors you're using on your forum......it's just that I don't see what a nice, pretty mountain scene has to do with being a webmaster or an admin. I did notice that you offer a darker version of your theme, which is great. It gives your member base the ability to choose between viewing your forum in a light theme or a dark theme. This will hopefully make more of your members happier since they won't be forced to deal with just a light or just a dark theme on the forum. My only issue was that I almost didn't find the theme changer until I hovered over the right spot. I would like to see it be a bit more obvious to find or at least make the text a little bit bigger at least.

Average

Member/Forum Activity:
The widgets you have on the left hand side is a great way to show off activity so I'm glad you have them there. Something else I look for is I go through and look to see how old the topics are in each section. Most of them are as recent as today or yesterday. I'm happy to see that. You don't want to see too many areas that are stagnant. If you ever find that you need help in activity, you could request a package on FP or ask other members to do a post exchange with you and your forum. I normally recommend using the exchange section to do exchanges with other members of FP while you wait out the cooling off period from each package that you request from FP. That'll help make it look like you're getting continuous activity and not just a quick burst from time to time. Even if you have a regular member base already, you can still do this because it will give your members some other stuff to reply to and interact with.

Good

Staff & Usergroups:
I really like to see some kind of a legend telling me how to identify the staff from the rest of the community and I don't really see anything like that on your forum. If I hover over a particular username, it'll tell me if that person is a staff member or not so at least there's that. I'm not saying you should be like other people or do things other forums are doing......I'm all about making things easier for your community. If someone needs to go to the staff for help or need to report something, then it should be easy to find that person instead of trying to hunt someone down.

Poor

Originality:
Trying to stand out from the crowd is, by far, the hardest part of running a forum (in my opinion). Having an admin and/or webmaster forum is a pretty common niche` among forums. So you'll need to do things to make yourself stand out from the crowd. I noticed in your "About Me" that you offer articles with some tips and tricks to help other webmasters make their communities better. I think this is a great idea to have this in addition to members discussing different things about running a community. If someone wants to discuss a specific problem then they can go to the forum with their question(s) but they can also read about different things in the articles for additional help. I noticed that you have a place on your forum for contests. This is a great way to attract attention to your community. The referral contest is a pretty generic contest, however, I'm liking what you're doing with the "Battle of the Boards" contest that you currently have playing out. Hopefully, that'll be something you can do each year on your forum to help draw attention to your community. Another thing......your forum seems to be centered around helping forums and I would seek to help out blog owners as well. Maybe you could add an area for people who have blogs instead of a forum.

Average

Grammar & Spelling:
I never did find any grammar or spelling mistakes while I was browsing your forum and that's a good thing for you. You don't want your forum to be riddled with grammar/spelling mistakes as that can be rather off putting to guests who might be interested in joining your community.

Excellent


There are a few things I'd adjust or do differently, however, I think you have a great community and I think you'll really go far if you keep at it. I enjoyed your community so much that I decided to join. I wish you and your community all the best in the new year and beyond.