The MLN-Ligers 3.0

Tatoranaki wrote:More information is coming soon, when the topic is BLUE, there is an update, when RED, the topic is complete in information, or has the necessary information.

What is forum post-day?
Forum post day is to raise post count, and get people to check out topics on the forum that they may not have seen before. Gravedigging, and Spam, will not be allowed. Gravedigging is where you post in an old topic that no longer needs replies. (I.E.: Solved Poll, Solved Topic, Resolved Debate, etc.)

Where do I post?
Members are encouraged to post in topics that have few, or no answers, but not to the point of gravedigging. If no replies are needed, then there's no reason to post! (It'd just be spam.) So you can post all over. The Bionicle RPG needs a move on, so come up with your own part and start your own Bionicle Legacy! Or if you're not a big Bionicle fan and prefer originality, or a wider range of media to choose from, check out Mirror & Tat's RPG, in the same section as Spilo's! Post anywhere, and everywhere, as long as it follows our rules and regulations you're A-OK!

How did I get a better badge?
If you get a new member (or members), that's the equivalent of about 25-50 posts, and you're be able to get the best badge in no time at all! Every 20 posts or so, you should "Rank Up" in your badge.

How do you know where I posted?
We don't, that's why you tell us! On the day of the event, there will be a new section on your profile called "Post Tab." Here you list all the topics you've posted in, and the members you brought.

When does it start, and for how long?
It starts this Saturday, and goes till' next Saturday. The official post-day, where your posts will be most closely examined, spans over both weekends. So if you're gone this Saturday and Sunday, just be sure to take part the next week! *Event extended.*

Can I get MLN Items too?
Yup, but that's a surprise! (If we pick you, REQUEST MLN items)


All active participants that contribute a fair amount this day will be award one of the...

Exclusive event badges!



Never know when one of these will come in handy.



If you get a new member, depending on how many, you'll recieve a better Rank badge. The badge pictured is only Rank 1.

Mata Nui wrote:Another News Update was just posted.
http://mln-ligers.forumotion.net/Nov-15-2009-h6.htm

The 3.0 Plan

The MLN-Ligers 3.0 is being created for a better, and more organized, user experience.
And what's better than a clean start?

All forum topics will be archived, with empty forum boards for fresh topics. If you want one of your topics to be revived, simply contact an admin and we'll bring it back for you.

More boards will become available, including exclusive areas for clubs, MLN-Liger bonus content, RPG's, and much more!

"New members will experience a whole new forum than we used to have,"
says Founder Tatoranaki.
"With new profile features, games, organized layout, and so on. We plan on this being the best Ligers yet! But we need the members' assistance."


You can help!
With a fresh new forum, also comes new members, and we don't want to let them down! We ask all current members, and even guests to the site, to provide us with opinions for the new MLN-Ligers 3.0! What should be change? What should we add? What should we keep? These are all questions that need to be answered, and we can't do it without you!

Join Now!
The MLN-Ligers Site will enter "Construction Mode" very soon, however, no official date has been planned. Construction Mode makes the forum an "admin-only" area, with only a construction page to view. So we encourage anybody who plans on joining to join now, as they won't be able to during Construction Mode.

Thanks for all the help, and cooperation!

<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Signed,
The MLN-Ligers Administration
</BLOCKQUOTE>

Mata Nui wrote:Review by: Wipper179

MLN-Ligers 3.0

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Congratulations! Your free forum review has been completed. The forum review will hold many tips, suggestions, comments, and feedback that's convenient and voluntary for your forum. Here is your forum review:

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Generalities

1. First Impressions (Score: 15/20):
   When i first entered the forum i saw a very striking introduction page with a very calming blue theme and very well designed background, this gives a very proffesional look as soon as you enter, well done! I also liked the banner with an animated glow, very effective and well presented. But it is hard to understand what your forum is about when you enter because there is no welcome message telling you about the forum. Your colour scheme is a nice soothing blue with a white background, which in my optionion looks a bit plain. I also noticed you have a notice saying "SAY "hello!" TO OUR LATEST MEMBER!" which i think is a good idea although you could make it stand out more. I liked the way that when you hover your mouse over the forums the whole categoery goes blue, its an impressive feature. I noticed that you have no forum descriptions which doesn't help when your trying to navigate around the forum but overall good first impressions!
   
2. Categories & Forums (Score: 6/10):
   You have 3 main categoery's with well thought out names that could cover every aspect of your needs although it is a but plain only having 3 categoeries and all the sub forms hidden, its good to have sub - forums hidden although in your case, i think you need to change some of the sub forms to just normal forums to lengthen your index a bit. I suggest making the "rules" sub forum a normal forum aswell as the "welcome" sub forum as they are the things that you are trying to get your members to read. With the second categoery, you should make the "my Lego network and my LEGO General area" sub forum a main forum so it is displayed under the categoery so that it is easier to navigate to the more important parts of your forum without as many clicks.
   

Generalities total ::21/30

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Forum Style

1. Major Graphics (Score: 7/10):
   I really liked your introduction page to the forum with all the buttons, these are amazing! they are so clear to see and well presented and they make your forum look really proffesional, the background in which they sit on is also amazing, that is one cool design feature that i wish i had on my forum! well done! but Your forums theme is very bland and plain with just a white background, mabye you could look into getting a new skin thats more colourful of hitskin.com or editing the theme you have at the moment to make it less bland and plain. The white background really isn't very good to look at although the calming blue is a great colour to have as it is nice to look at so keep the calming blue if you can. I liked the way you have a nice background for the categoeries but i am finding it hard to link your forums theme to the acctual purpose of the forum mabye you could make the theme look like what the forum is about.
   Banner
   This is a great banner a very nice design and it must of taken quite a long time to create too. The glowing red is really striking and drawes you into the forum straight away although again, you need to make it look like what the forum is about so when people first see your forum they know what it is about from the banner. The banner is prehaps the most important part of the forum as it is the first thing seen by a visiter. but i personally think that the background behind the main banner image wrecks it a little bit as the colours and the patterns dont match very well.
   Navigation Bar
   Very simplistic and quite easy to know what each link takes you too although your forum would be imroved if you made a custom set of navigation bar images that you could add to the forum so your members would be able to navigate around the forum easier. You can get a set of navigation bar images from this forum just go to the graphic design section, it would improve your forum quite alot.
   
2. Forum Layout & Color Scheme (Score: 6/10):As i've said before the calming blue is very effective and is, well, calming But the white background is too plain and bland and reduces your forums image.Change that and yourforum will look much better and more professional. One problem i have found with the layout is that there is alot of white space above the actual categoeries, this is not good as it makes your forum look too spread out and reduces its image, Get rid of that white space! it will help. having that "new address" message and the latest updates information just below the forum banner isn't where it should be, that space there should be for your forums description/scrolling banner which tells you about the forum as a whole not the updates, the updates should be placed in an announcements forum as an announcement.
   
3. Images & Icons (Score: 9/10):
   I have to say, your forum icons really stand out alot, they are in 3 glowing colours, green, blue and black. These add a contrast to your forum and it really is one of your best design features, keep up the good work with your forum icons, they are good. But the topic icons for the topics arent as good, they look a bit plain again, try making some topic icons like the forum icons but smaller, that will improve your forum, but they are not bad, they just could be improved. So overall your forums theme is really quite good! Also your statistics icon is great and an excellent addition to your forum, you definatly have a blue theme going on here.
   

Forum Style total :: 22/30

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Usergroups

1. Population of Groups (Score: 6/10):
   Well you have 4 staff groups, administrators, pending admin, retired/inactive staff and Moderators, these are good as you don't need many staff groups. The "pending admin" group is a nice idea, and so is the retired/inactive staff group as it keeps your groups clean and not overcrowded. I needed to register to see your group stats so i can't comment on your group poulation very well but i can see that you have atleast 3 admins and one pending admin, thats a good amount to have at the moment but no more. You also have i think around 5-6 moderators although its hard to tell the difference between rank 10 members and moderators so if you do have 6 moderators or more, that is too many, you only need around 3 with a forum of your size.
   
2. Staff Groups / User Groups (Score: 8/10):
   You have 12 usergroups (11 the ranks 0 - 10) and 4 staff groups, i like the idea of colouring members when they post more and they can work to progress up the ranking system, that is a nice idea although it does mean that there are ALOT of groupd in your legend. 4 staff groups is absolutely fine but you have too many moderators, you need to reduce the amount if possible. I also noticed that the rank 10 group colour is extremely similar to the moderators colour so it is very hard to tell who is a moderator or who is rank 10. I suggest you change the moderator groups colour. The ranks also go from the lightest form of a colour to the darkest which i think adds to the design aspect of your forum very well. Good work on the groups! just sort out those moderators and the groups colour.
   

Usergroups :: 14/20

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Forum Activity

1. Post/Member Ratio & Quantity (Score: 10/10):
   

   Our users have posted a total of 11473 messages
   We have 111 registered users

   This is an amazing amount of messages for just 111 users it is way over the amount we would expect you to have with that amount of users! It divides up to 103 posts per user! thats the highest ive ever seen! well done. Your users have definatly been active over the past year to achieve that amount of posts, full marks for this section well done! keep that up!
   

2. Users Active (Score: 5/10):

Members connected during the last 99 hours: 1legosam, Alexgood2, Barsky, Bricksaber07, DarthBanHammer,elliwhi, hotdogsauce, Jet Trooper, Karika, Mario, Master_designer, Spilo, StevenF50, Takoranaki, V:Elite Cyber-Warrior X

You have only 15 users connected during the last 99 hours, thats not very good considering your amount of members, you'd expect around 40 users online in the past 48 hours if your forum would be staying active. Try sending out weekly newsletters to get your old members back that way your forum will get get more active again like i suspect it used to. Also try inviting people from other sources like youtube and hotmail, that way you can get some new members comming in to! [/list]

Forum Activity total :: 15/20

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Other

1. Arcade(Score: 7/10):
   So i noticed that you have an arcade on your forum so i thought it only to be fair to review this aspect too! It is a great idea having an arcade as it gives your members something fun to do! I noticed to get to the arcade you have to click on bonus features then i see those awesome buttons again! then you can access 3 bonus features which i think is a great idea. So i click on the arcade and find myself in a new page (im presuming you used a html page to make the arcade) and a white title with a plude outline at the top of the page telling me this is the arcade! nice idea. Also you have a weird background which really doesn't work for the arcade, i suggest getting rid of the space pictures as they make the arcade look a bit unprofessional also your games aren't very well organised although i can imagine that it would be hard to re-arrange them. When i start looking through the games i notice that you have a nice christmas theme going on, mainly on page 2 of the arcade but its still a nice idea that gets your members in the mood for christmas. One issue with one of the games (the one called pong) is that the blocker doesn't move withthe mouse, its a bit delayed so i suggest you move that game and delete it as it can get quite fustrating! Overall a very good feature for the forum well done!
   
2. Forum Introduction(Score: 10/10):
   I thought as it was one of the main features of the forum and very well designed i should review this part too. The background is amazing on that page, its like an optical illusion, deffinatly keep that. The buttons are well arranged in a table and they have a nice light effect. Then you have the page 2 button which is good which takes you to even more options! i have to say your forum is much more than just a forum, its a website now. But i noticed a problem, when you are on page 2 there is no button that you can click to return to page 1 which is a bit of an inconvenience. Add a button that takes you back and then the introduction page will be perfect! its such a minor thing that im not gonna dock you a mark for that but it still needs sorting out! Well done!

Others total :: 17/20

Overall Marking: 89/120
You have passed!

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What could be done to improve your forum:
You should get rid of that white space above the categoeries and put a forum introdustion scrolling banner there telling guests what the forum is about.
The best thing I like about your forum:
The forum introduction as it is by far the best part of your forum and is extremely well designed! Good Work

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