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Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web.

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A review. We scored 80%!
Topic Started: Apr 30 2010, 05:21 PM (886 Views)
Pando
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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Mini Maul of Outline just reviewed our board yesterday. We scored 24/30 or 80%!

Here is the review:
Mini Maul
 
First Impressions & Appearance
8/10

As you click to the link of the board, i see that there is a lot going on throughout the board, there is always a few members online at any one time when i have clicked on the link which is good to see you are getting a constantly flow of people into the board. The theme you are using as your default probably isnt the best one to look at visually but the banners text isnt the boards name. I would the banner changed at least and look for some other graphics for this theme as the graphics you are using have a different background color to the theme itself. Im sure you can find a nice set of forum markers here at outline free of change with transparent backgrounds.
Looking at your theme chooser, you have tons of themes! Variety is good and thats why you have a theme chooser :P Some really classic skins in there and you have lots of different colors and varieties in there which is great. Some of the theme such as SE Nightlime, SE Winter and a few others need matching buttons and markers as they still have defaults, personally, i would make your default theme SE Evergreen as that theme looks amazing on the eye and on the forum index, looks the most pleasing.
Overall, the first impressions are a good one for activity and members on the board, but you need to get your themes sorted being there are lots of them. If you can fix all the little errors on the themes and sort out there own graphics, then the selection of themes will make a lot of people happy as they can constantly change between them.


Staff & Activity
Staff
5/5

Its good to see a staff team all pulling together on a community as it doesnt happen very often. From Moderators to admins, you are all getting involved with the board and actually making the board worth visiting. Special mentions to Pandorasaurus and lamna who are usually posting and give off a real sense of community here. I also want to mention your RP staff and how well the are doing to keep a RP going. Whenever i have seen a RP game on a forum, it is usually dead or very inactive, looking in the RP forum, i can see that there is quite a bit going on in there, thanks to your RP staff, you have something that most people try hard to get.
Overall, your staff are doing a awesome job, they are all active and post on the board requently, you have a good solid staff base to build on as your grow!
Activity
3/5

Activity on the board isnt great but it isnt bad either. Every area within the board is full of topics and the fact that your main area of discussion actually has as many topics as other discussion such as entertainment really shows you that the members there are actually enjoying the genre of the board and having fun while discussion it which is the main point of a forum in my opinion anyways :P As there are always people online, you get a nice steady flow of about 2-3 pages of active topics a day which is nice for a community your size, you dont want loads of meaningless topics, you want a few really meaningful topics to get stuck into.
Overall, i think the activity is fine the way it is, but i sense the board has had a rough patch like most other boards at present, hopefully oer the summer you can come up with a few ideas which link into your gnre to get a sense of community fun going on.


I'll take her advice and make Evergreen the main theme.
Edited by Pando, Apr 30 2010, 05:23 PM.
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Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

Wow, pretty good. I sent an email thanking her for her input and publicity, and explaining why our themes did not match the rest of the forum's excellence.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

Tree That Owns Itself
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Pity the RP is actually dying though. :(

WOOHOO! SHE DIDN'T MENTION ME!
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

I was wondering when/how we could wrangle up another of these evaluations, and I'm pleased to see we scored so high!
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus!

COM Contributions


food for thought
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Pando
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I just asked on Outline, and someone did it. Pity that the first review scored 85% though.
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

Yeah, it looks like the activity category is what hurt us the most. We should make sure and submit for another review after membership purges. ;)
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus!

COM Contributions


food for thought
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Pando
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Obey or I'll send you to the moon
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She mentioned that we get 2-3 pages of new topics a day. If she became a member she'd see that it was actually 3-4. I asked here to do a review as a member of this site, rather than a guest.
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Empyreon
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Are you plausible?

That's definitely a factor too.
Take a look at my exobiology subforum of the planet Nereus!

COM Contributions


food for thought
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

It would also help her see member movements as the day progresses.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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