A Review of MLP Forums

[SCS 7,443]

I've seen some other people provide some very nice reviews of this forum, so I decided that I should share my own two cents. My intention is to make this review as detailed as possible. I'll say what I like, and what I think could be improved, along with reasons as to why. This way my review will be as helpful to improving the site as possible. 

 

For anyone who doesn't want to read the whole thing, I'll go ahead and say now that it is without a doubt an immensely positive review. Excellent community and staff, great features, great aesthetic appeal, and lots of stuff to do. This, if not my favorite website, would definitely be in the top three. 

 

And now, without further ado, here is my review. I will break it up into different sections, with a summary of the ratings I have provided at the end. 

 

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COMMUNITY: 9/10

This website, by far, has the best community I have ever encountered. Never before have I experienced an internet community as kind, friendly, and helpful as this one. I do my best to be an optimist, but I can be very pessimistic about internet communities. I've seen so much cruelty and hatred in Youtube comments, for instance, that I think I began to loose faith that wonderful communities such as these existed. I'm so glad that I was wrong. One of my favorite aspects of this community is the Life Advice forum. I love popping in there and helping some people from time to time, and I feel confident and safe that I can post about my own issues there and receive good help. This community is also very mature. The rules are rather lax, but it just works out so well for us. I don't see people abusing the freedom the staff gives us very much at all. Other forums I use have much more restrictive rules, which makes me feel like I can't talk about certain issues that I enjoy talking about, but could be considered unsuitable for children. So, that just helps me to feel much more relaxed here, since I don't have to worry so much about making sure that whatever I'm saying is appropriate for younger children. The members are also funny, they have great personalities, and I love talking to people here. I've already made some good friends here who I enjoy talking to via private messages, and I know I'll continue to make more. 

 

Now, why do I rate this 9/10 instead of 10/10? Mainly just because I was pretty disappointed with the amount of discord (no, not @~Chaotic Discord~, he's a pretty cool guy and doesn't afraid of anything) that took place here over the Princess Twilight Sparkle issue. I'm not against debating and throwing our ideas at each other back and forth over a volleyball net, just as long as we do that in a civilized manner. I saw some arguing break out over this. I don't mean to be too critical though, it's definitely understandable why some people got upset about this, as its a very pivotal moment in the show. I just hope that, in the future, people will discuss these matters calmly over a nice warm cup of coffee instead of fighting. But, I definitely don't expect any community to be perfect.

 

Another reason why I would rate this community 9/10 instead of 10/10 is because I have seen some negativity here and there. That's to be expected in any community of course, so it doesn't bother me very much at all. I just see some negative behavior sometimes between members that is, in my opinion, unnecessary. But, regardless, I love this community very much. It is the best I have ever encountered on the internet, and I believe that we can all continue to keep the community excellent no matter how large this site grows.

 

All things considered, I believe that a rating of 9/10 fairly expresses my love for this community without overlooking the things I dislike.

 

 

 

 

STAFF: 10/10

This website's staff is magnificent. I'm an administrator on a different website that's fairly large, clocking in at almost 7,000 members. Observing how the staff here manages this site inspires me to try to do better than ever on the website I have been trusted with helping to manage. The friendly, yet professional manner of this staff is just fantastic. They do their job efficiently, while still being pleasant, fun to talk to, and good members of the community. With a staff such as they, I know that I can use this site safely without feeling like every step I take is being monitored and policed by an army of moderator assassins. They have struck a perfect balance, indeed! It's also nice how the owner, @Feld0, takes the time to talk to me personally about issues I'm having with logging into pony.fm after letting me into the pony.fm QA team. In fact, he's taking the time to talk with me about my issues with logging into pony.fm right now as I type this. So, thank you staff, for managing this site so well.

 

 

 

 

FEATURES: 10/10

I love the features this website has to offer. There's been times in the past on several websites where I would think to myself "well then, if only I could do this thing, some such or other, ahem, yes," and I have yet to have to muster such woeful contemplation here. This website is just so... so logical, it's beautiful. Please excuse me while I wipe some liquid pride from my eyes. 

 

All joking aside, the way this website is designed is just fantastic. I struggle to think of anything I can't do that I would like to, because you can do so many things, and I love that in a website. The support ticket system, the issues feature, all the forum features, how much we can customize our profiles, it's just wonderful. And, to think that the tech admins and the new assistants of the tech admins are working on even more awesome features for all of us. It's also especially admirable how they program this site on top of everything else they have to do. This goes for the whole staff, who are willing to spend some of their free time here despite their other responsibilities. Thanks, guys!   

 

 

 

EASE OF USE: 9/10

Another great thing about this website is how, at least for me, it was pretty easy to figure out how to use. I have had a lot of experience with internet forums, other websites, and computers in general, though. So, for me it was fun being able to figure out all the stuff that I could do. Even now I'm still learning new stuff about the site from time to time. The support ticket system the staff has set in place works very well, and there are a lot of FAQ articles to help out, too.

 

The reason why I give this aspect of the site a 9/10 instead of a 10/10 is because it's possible that people who haven't had as much internet experience would struggle to figure out how to use the site. Perhaps more measures could be taken to help those people. One possibility would be that a brief tutorial video automatically outlining the basics of the website would be displayed on a welcome page of sorts that would be the first thing a new member would see upon logging in for the first time. Or, perhaps a text/image based tutorial that would be automatically presented to a new user upon their first login.

 

Overall, though, especially given the huge amount of features there are, this site is still very easy to use, and definitely earns a rating of 9/10 in my opinion. 

 

 

 

AESTHETICS: 10/10

This is honestly the nicest looking site I've ever used. I love MLP art, and it's right there in the background for me to look at all the time, no matter where I am on the site. The way everything is laid out is nice looking and logically oriented. The colors are appealing, and I also love that wooden board style used for titles in messages, topics and announcements. I also love MLP Forums's favicon. It's also awesome how the staff lets users submit new banners to be put up about once a week or so. I don't know of any other site that takes the time to let their users do that. It's a great way to display the artistic talents of members of this wonderful community. 

 

 

 

OVERALL: 48/50

Overall, this site is just wonderful. Sure, there are a few things here or there that I think could be improved, but I don't expect this site to be perfect. This site literally goes above and beyond my expectations for a good site that I would enjoy using in every respect. It has a wonderful community, a pleasant, mature, and professional staff, a multitude of great features while maintaining a relative ease of use, and excellent aesthetic appeal. I'm very thankful that I happened to stumble upon this website one day, because it is the best thing I have ever encountered on the internet. 

 

 

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Summary

Community: 9/10

Staff: 10/10

Features: 10/10

Ease of Use: 9/10

Aesthetics: 10/10

Overall: 48/50 (Beyond Excellent)

 

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Well, that concludes my review! Thanks for reading it, and I welcome any feedback anyone has about it.

Edited February 24, 2013 by SCS

[NavelColt 22,876]

Terrific review, loved the point system you used, reminds me of official test scoring and such. Really, I'm really excited to see the Feedback and Suggestions forum receiving some detailed feedback like this review and the one prior to this one made by Muffin Princess. For a while now it's seemed like the only things posted in here were the suggestions side of the forum's purpose, and questions, which don't even belong in here. So yeah, nice to see these reviews, and I hope to see more and more feedback from all sorts of people ^^ It's great to see what people's thoughts are.

[SCS 7,443]

Terrific review, loved the point system you used, reminds me of official test scoring and such. Really, I'm really excited to see the Feedback and Suggestions forum receiving some detailed feedback like this review and the one prior to this one made by Muffin Princess. For a while now it's seemed like the only things posted in here were the suggestions side of the forum's purpose, and questions, which don't even belong in here. So yeah, nice to see these reviews, and I hope to see more and more feedback from all sorts of people ^^ It's great to see what people's thoughts are.

 

Thanks! I'm glad you like our reviews.

[Rainbow Dash Loyalty 1,274]

Excellent review! It's very descriptive and reasonable, and I agree 110% about everything you said. I doubt that anything can be perfect, but this forum is as close as perfect can get to me.

Thanks for the outstanding review ^.^ it was a nice read.

[SCS 7,443]

Excellent review! It's very descriptive and reasonable, and I agree 110% about everything you said. I doubt that anything can be perfect, but this forum is as close as perfect can get to me.

 

Thanks for the outstanding review ^.^ it was a nice read.

 

Thanks for the kind feedback! I'm glad you liked the review.

[Creamy Arty 6,251]

Thanks not only for taking the time to put that together, but thanks for being so comprehensive. Your review is both helpful and encouraging. And I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed your time here thus far, as have I.

[SCS 7,443]

Thanks not only for taking the time to put that together, but thanks for being so comprehensive. Your review is both helpful and encouraging. And I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed your time here thus far, as have I.

 

Thanks! I'm glad people are liking it.

[Zoop 8,384]

Feedback - positive and negative - is always greatly appreciated. I hope you continue to enjoy your time here.

[SCS 7,443]

Feedback - positive and negative - is always greatly appreciated. I hope you continue to enjoy your time here.

 

Thanks! I will.