TeenArea has 8 Reviews
Below are the reviews left by other members on TeenArea. Jump to review form?
ThenReview gave it
on 15th Jul 2009 and said:You've got a great domain name, however your not appealing to the correct target. Viewing the website for the first time simply makes me think more of a typical general forum. Nothing on first glance suggests its a teen forum. Apart from the logo which has some dodgey rushed text, I would suggest you invest in a proper logo which displays correct and shows off the forum much better then the current one does.
I'm really not a fan of the adverts within posts, specially when you havent edited the design of the adverts to match YOUR website, i would suggest having them at the footer or on the first post only, Adverts bring money however they also make it look ugly if you dont do it right.
I would also suggest removing some forums which are clearly not used much, or remove 'last post' time, as some forums don't have anything new in TWO WEEKS which really does put alot of guests off, its showing the forum is dead and has no community, maybe remove the times from guests by using IF commands in vbulletin?
Along with the forum is aimed at teens yet there's really not many 'teen' forums more general ones, which you can get anywhere even on game forums. Maybe suggest to your team to add more teen based forums?
Along with removing the " Total members that have visited the forum in the last 24 hours:" you only have 18 users viewing a day, it's not something to brag about i'm afraid. I would suggest getting rid of that untill you get 30+ users a day, making the forum look even more active then it currently is.
But apart from that i wish you all the luck as you have a perfect domain for the idea. I hope you can make it in this tough market, and keep us updated! :)
Good luck ;)Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?
![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Shadow.jpg)
Shadow gave it
on 19th Feb 2009 and said:Appearance
Hm, this is not attractive at all. This is a teen forum, right? I was expecting something teen related. You don't have to have teen celebs; that's actually advised against. But you need a better theme than this.
Your logo is too small too. I don't know how easy it is to make a V-Bulletin theme not look like the regular ones, but you should look into it.
Activity
It appears that two things have happened:
1) Your board has died or
2) You have more forums that are not viewable to guests.If it's the latter, I think you should change that. I don't like when boards restrict so many forums viewable to guests. Let's say you have 25 forums on your board, open up all 25. If you have 50, open up 25. You should strive to open up if not all, then 50% of your total forum count.
If it's the former, then you have a bigger problem, because it's very common. A message board's normal life span is about 3 months. If a board isn't attractive looking, they won't last long. Attractive means theme, activity, and the existing members. That's right; existing members. Whether they're old or new members, they won't stick around if there's a lot of drama and arguments between the members. There will be squabbles, but as long as they're squashed before it escalates, it won't hurt the board much. Eventually, if enough people leave, the board will die. In your case, since V-Bulletin is a paid-license forum software, you'd lose out.
So how do you kick start a dying board's metabolism? Sadly, it won't be easy. If it was excessive drama, it will be very hard to win back the members you have and to attract more members. Lots of advertisement, whether free or paid, would be the best way. Word of mouth is another. But you have to keep them there, and that's not enough. You need more member participation. You have 350+ members. I don't know how many are active, but if each of those 350+ members posted at least one thread a day, that would be enough to show that the board hasn't died a terrible death.
Another thing would actually be a revamp. This can go from being a full layout revamp, or even a revamp that involves deleting boards, adding boards, and implementing original ideas. Ultimately, you need to kick some life into the board and make sure that there are things there that not many boards have. That in itself isn't an easy feat.
Environment
Since I'm not a member (and never will be a member), I can only see what's on the surface. It appears that you've locked most of your forums to guests. Not a good idea if you want people to see how older members react to newer ones, and vice versa. You probably have members who won't post there because they were duped into joining anyway. Open the board up more.
All in all...
Your board is not attractive. It goes beyond the boring theme that has nothing to do with what you're trying to attract. It's limiting--you can't view anything without joining. Someone shouldn't have to join to look at how active it is. Open it up further and you'll see a difference hopefully. And make a more attractive theme, appropriate for your audience. Good luck!
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YMN gave it
on 18th Feb 2009 and said:All I have to say is that you have a good domain and a good niche. All you need is a great custom design and some added features and tweaks. Once you do that, you'll be golden.
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Valtriviord gave it
on 4th Jan 2009 and said:I suppose it isn't the worst skin but I wouldn't call it the best it doesn't attract a large audience due to the skin not being too nice, I wouldn't call the skin ugly but I wouldn't call it nice eithier. I beleive if you work on the skin and grow a larger community this site could end up going quite far.
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Nexdana gave it
on 3rd Jan 2009 and said:It's not very colourful but it isn't ugly either. I think its a vast improvement to other version you have had though. I prefer the black skin over the blue one.
I don't think that the adverts under posts is a good idea, it might earn you money, but if they are animated images they can look rather ugly. Perhaps limit it to one advert per thread instead of 2/3. Also, once logged in the header above the shoutbox gets very crowded with notices from the various plugins installed. Where plugins can give great enhancement to the board, you don't want to overwhelm visitors with information.
I like the shoutbox, I think it can bring the community closer together and keep them talking on the forum instead of elsewhere.
I think possibly installing an arcade would be a good idea, give members another reason to stick around on the forum instead of going elsewhere.
Keep up the good work :)
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![[img: avatar]](/avatars/Martini.png)
Martini gave it
on 2nd Jan 2009 and said:Hello, I'll be reviewing your site next! :P
First of all, the appearance. It's way too plaid for a teen forum. It should be more, well fun. I'm not saying gurly, but try choosing a theme that does not have such a "professional" look. A good example might be Spillitnow.
Another tip, try to incorporate people into your top image. And since it's a Teen based forum, I would suggest using celebrities, since teens look up to them.
But enough about appearance! :P
So you have a good amount of forums! That's good but try braking them down a little more, the TeenArea Zone looks a little cramped, so try separating those a little.
I also noticed a grammar error in one of your board title.
Do you feel like you should have a award?
should say
Do you feel that you should have an award?And, I think that's it! I noticed you have lot of posts so keep it up!
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Sophia gave it
on 1st Jan 2009 and said:hmm well the first thing people do is look at the designing of your site if it isnt interesting they leave,n ur design kinda ehh?not interesting sorry....it teenarea so it shouldnt be black n white but more colourful or u can feature teen celebs in it
Organization: very messy which drags people away not to be harsh but try adding stuff
Content: not much yu should add teen celebs n advice stuff like that n web designs
Over all: very good site ,could be more coulrful,you update often,you work very hard so people will come everyday at ur site awsome work!rock on gal!Using MSIE on Windows | Report This?
TiffanyBee gave it
on 31st Dec 2008 and said:Layout
As a forum layout, I don't think this is the best and you could definitely do more with this. It's very plain but it's nice that it's unisex because a lot of forums these days have very girly layouts. The falling cornflower blue snowflakes are a definite no-go. It may be winter but when I see falling hearts, snowflakes, money signs, etc, I think of the old days on Neopets when people had that in their shops or on cheesy Xanga layouts. Get rid of it. If you wanted a festive layout, you should just change the layout to a blue color or something that reminds you of winter. It could be just me, but the font is a little awkward. It's really grungy and doesn't fit a "teen arena" layout unless teen arena is supposed to be about a fighting brutal arena or something.It's pretty cool how you're able to change the skin of the forum, but again, the Christmas layout is not appealing. There is so much going on. The header image is fine but there really is so much going on. So many animated things! For one thing, the links don't fit in that grey box thing behind it and the title background is just too much. Especially since the title is in white making things harder to read.
The footer image of the christmas layout is way too big. The house is kind of blurry--not a good look.
Shoutbox
It's a forum, there is no need for a shoutbox.Everything Else
I think you have some great topics and it seems like you have a lot of active members. The only thing that is bringing your ratings down is the layout. The setup is easy to navigate around but the layouts need to change.Using Firefox on Windows | Report This?
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