NintendoForums Needs Reviewed

I need a review of my nintendo forums. Apparently there is something wrong with them as I can't get people to join without running contests and if they do, they only post a few times

So anyway, suggest away at improving the community at Nintendo Forums - Nintendo Wii, Games and Console Chat

Wordpress blog just ignore, its getting an overhaul here shortly thanks to WooThemes

 

Nintendo Review

Hi BSM,

Hope all is well with you. Thanks for posting your site for review! I love the design! The Mario Cart image in your blue background is really cool.

Here's a few things that I noticed about your forum that might give you some ideas:

*The notice to register is really big and a little overwhelming when I first entered the site. Also, since the text in that box is so compact it wasn't even something that I honestly wanted to read. The image that you have there makes the point that the notice is urging people to register so I wouldn't even really talk about that so much. I would suggest using that space to bullet point the top three things that your site has that makes it better than any other Nintendo site out there.

*Also, the fact that this notice is on every page is really annoying. Is it possible that some people are registering simply to get the notice out of the way? Something I read about Web Marketing recently sort of relates... people will usually visit a website 5 or 6 times before they are ready to buy something. I only assume that there is some similar ratio for online communities. I know I visited AA a few times before I registered and only then when I wanted to get involved in the conversation. Therefore, if people feel that your notice is forcing them to register on their first visit that may be something that "irrks" people enough to walk away having with a bad experience. Can you only have the announcement on the first page?

*Totally a small thing, but who is your target audience - age range? The introduction coming from Mario is cute, but it looks like most of your members are guys. If they are over 14 years old, I question if they are "into" Mario running their forum. I'm not a video gamer, but I imagine if I was and I was willing to join a forum about it, I would be a serious gamer. My fun would come from winning the games. You know your audience better than me, but just food for thought.

*To that extent, it was hard for me to find a place to ask for help on a game or get "tips and tricks" that your users had offered. The forum seems more focused on the business of Nintendo (and it's a great business... have you ever read the book "Blue Ocean Strategy" - they use Nintendo as a best practice example). Anyway... sorry about that. There were a few threads that I saw or perhaps I just missed it. However, I would suggest adding a Help, Tips & Tricks forum that specifically calls this out (if that is a focus of your site). This way people have a specific place to ask for help or show their expertise. Being able to show off their skills is one reason why many people join an online community. They want to be seen as experts. I suggest you give them a spotlight to shine.

*I know I just said you should add a forum, but I think you need to merge some of the forums that currently exist in order to reduce the overall number. From an non-gamer point of view I would suggest merging the "Nintendo Renders" and "Other Non-Nintendo Consoles" forums with the "Players Chat" area. Also, I would suggest putting all of the Wii items together. I think the review set up is cool, but maybe once you get a critical mass of active members you can reintroduce it, but for now it's not getting the type of back and forth you need for it to be a stand alone forum. Finally I would say that you should put all of the franchises together in one forum, if you feel that they are needed. It may actually be a bit confusing since some of those same topics could be discussed in the Nintendo DS or Wii forums.

*One idea that I had for your board was since the people on it like video games. Perhaps you use the points system that you have created to keep track of a ranking. You could display this ranking on the homepage of the site. I would think you didn't even need to give them prizes, but just the fact that they are ranked #1 or #2... might be enough.

*As for the points system, I noticed that one member on 6/20/09 said that they got points for clicking on an ad. You might want to be careful about that. I'm not sure if it is true or not, but if you are working with Google Adsense they can strip your account away just for the perception that you are rewarding people for clicking on the ads.

*Also, there are ads in the fourm posts themselves. Are you putting them there or do you let your members do that? If you are, I would suggest not. I wouldn't be happy if my post became an ad. Plus with the images that some people have in sig lines you can't hardly even see the posts! For example, first post on the Legend of Zelda Wii 2010 in the Zelda Games forum.

Wow.... hope any of that is helpful!

Best of luck!
RR

 

thank you, I've reduced the image size of the guest register to something drastically smaller.

Thank you, I've also made it so the larger more enticing register button is on forumhome only

I like it! going to work on this soon as I get time.

Thanks for the review, I'm going to work on a lot of the later stuff as well soon as I get some more free time!