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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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New Reviews
Topic Started: Aug 5 2008, 08:21 PM (532 Views)
Livyatan


This first one is from the ZetaBoards Theme Zone: http://s2.zetaboards.com/ifskinzone/topic/5008844/1/

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All ratings are out of 10...

Number of Members - 6
Number of Posts - 7
Number of Active Members - 4
Originality - 8
Quality of Categories - 8
Good Adminship - 10
Good Moderators - 9
Variation of Forums - 8
Layout - 8
Appearance - 9
Overall Rating - 8

My first thought about the appearance of the forum was that is was well designed. I like the colors used and the overall design of the default skin. The globe works well with the idea of the forum, though it doesn't perfectly flow well with the theme. I would consider possibly having a color overlay on the globe so it is still there, but it better flows with the skin. Additionally, I would highly suggest adding in custom topic markers. While the default work, they don't flow smoothly with the current theme due to the style and color of them. For the second theme that you have, I would change the text color so it is more readable, something like a very dark or very light color. The current text color blends with the background, which is not something that you want with the theme. Additionally, I would suggest adding graphics to it before allowing members to use it. Overall though, I would keep the default theme, make the few tweaks, and you'll have two great themes for users to choose from.

Activity wise, the forum could use some work. While your intent is to have the community very close together, I think you need to be able to attract more users. I know that there are quite a few people out there that are very interested in the idea of biology and such. Try to connect with these users on other websites, blogs, and forums and invite them to join your forum for more discussion over the subject. Making a website and a forum blog about your theory (outside of the features on ZetaBoards) would get quite a bit of hits from search engines if the blog/site is very active. I know that a forum like this has a lot of potential because you focus discussion on such a controversial issue that users will be very tempted to debate with others and seek more information or ideas. For activity, I would try to focus on your current community. This will split your resources to getting new users and to getting your current users active, but it will help the forum to grow and attract more people across the internet. I would suggest holding a referral contest so that your current users can attract outside sources and you will be able to focus on the community at hand, along with your staff.

The layout and organization of the forum is relatively good. One thing I would highly suggest is merging the Competitions and Projects category with the SE Administration category. I think having all of this at the top of the forum would get users much more interested in the various happenings on the forum. Additionally, having those two categories split isn't needed due to both being informative to the users. I would consider removing the sub-forums that don't receive a lot of activity. Otherwise, I think the layout is good. Originality wise, there are quite a few websites and blogs dedicated to biology. I haven't seen very many biological forums though, especially about speculative biology. I like the idea behind the forum and I would just try to get the name out and keep adding in discussion area about big speculative ideas as they develop. Try to add in forums about discussions that discredit the current theories that are believed throughout the world. That will help the forum to get more discussion going. As for the staff, both the moderators and administrators seem to be doing their job. Try to make sure that they are helping the community out and getting other users active and I'm sure the board will be fine.

Overall, the forum has some things that could use work. However, I think that the forum is doing pretty good so far and I hope the success continues. :)


And the second one is another review from Revision Reviews: http://revisionreviews.net/topic/7021512/1/

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Member & Post Statistics: 8
Board Organization: 10
Theme and Graphics: 8
Unique Features: 9
Moderation Quality: 10
Administration Quality: 9
Overall: 54/60 (90%)

Overall, your board has come along quite nicely since the last review. The statistics have improved greatly, with the post count more then doubling since the last review and the member count has increased at a good rate too. You have improved in all of your categories where you could with one exception, and that has given you a great score. Unfortunately, there are still some things that should be addressed.

The first thing is the statistics part, but over time that will get better and better, so continue to do what you are doing now, because its working. :) Board Organization is still prefect, and I have no suggestions to offer to you there. In the Theme and Graphics category, you moved up overall with a more "environment/biology" themes appearance, but in some areas you still need some help or have moved back from before. The topic markers are still default, and I think that biology/science could somehow be incorporated into those. Maybe use a magnifying glass instead of a folder... The team icons, banner, and topic buttons all have differing styles of text, which hurts the overall flow of the theme/appearance.

The only other area that need major changing is still the Unique Features category. I suggested last time and I do not really see much evidence of incorporating media/designing into the discussions around the board. Encourage your members to use MS paint or their own hand drawing to talk about speculative evolution. I think that would really enhance discussion.

With that said, congrats on making Hall of Fame status, and keep working hard on your board. :)

Lance
The grand Livyatan on deviantArt: link

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Saxophlutist
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Adult
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W00t! We're on the board Hall of Fame!
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Sliver Slave
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I'm going back to basics.

Yeah! Hall of Fame! *Breaks out cake and party hats again*
Something is upsetting the ostriches.

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