Hello
@L3gacy this is a really impressive looking forum. As a gamer I'm extremely jealous. You'd done a great job of capturing the aesthetic of Red Dead. Kudos! It's great to see more gaming communities out there.
May I be so bold as to offer you some feedback?
Yes? Okay, great!
First, I love that you have picked up some social media accounts to support your community. This is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site. Just make sure you're engaging and not just pushing your content. I good rule of thumb is 80/20. 80% engagement. Either commenting on other people's stuff, liking, sharing and 20% your own stuff. Try and tweet daily. Even if it's just two or three. With your Facebook page, join other Red Dead pages
as your page and comment on stuff, share their stuff, make friends, not competitors. What are you gonna do with your YT channel?
Let's move onto your forum. As I said, it looks excellent. There are a couple of things I would fix/change if it was up to me. This is entirely subjective. Other people will see things differently, so feel free to ignore me. I mean, what do I know?
Your header takes up about half the page when you open the forum. Everything you see here is classed as 'above the fold'. It's the most important area as it's the first thing people see and how they decide if they want to start scrolling. Your header takes up almost half of the space above the fold and it - whilst pretty - doesn't do anything. You could display the information in your header image - which is just the site name/URL in 20% of that space. I would consider reducing it down significantly. That way people get to see more of the content when they first load the forum. You want their eyes drawn to your actual content, not just the header. Remember,
content is king in all things.
You have 13 nodes/ subforums and 9 threads. Before you start doing any promotions please populate these sections. The forum looks Red Dead without any content. Don't expect people to go to an empty section and start conversations.
You need to be the conversation starter. Post two or three threads in each section, each posing a question that people can answer. And keep at it. Post daily if you can, weekly if not. Keep up the momentum even if it sometimes feels like you're shouting into the void.
Consider placing a content order: https://administrata.net/forums/content-orders.28/ with us and we will help kick start your forum!
I would rewrite your forum descriptions. These are (and if I am wrong please tell me) generated by ChatGPT. I have no issue with ChatGPT and I use it a lot. But when I read down these descriptions:
- Whether it's updates, rumors, or official announcements about Red Dead Redemption
- Whether it’s news, rumors, gameplay ideas, or just general chatter
- Whether you're sharing epic moments, revisiting the world
- Whether you're searching for an established posse
- Whether you're a seasoned hunter or just
- Whether you're hunting for treasures
- Whether you're a seasoned distiller
- Whether you're working with
- Whether you're a seasoned
- Whether you're
Savvy forum users will spot AI generated text a mile off. It's a minor point, but it's a pet peeve of mine.
I'd move the off-topic forum to the bottom of the list too. That's not what you want Red Dead fans to see first. You want Red Dead fans to see Red Dead content.
This is probably a very minor point, but I'm on a roll so stick with me. I guess this is your account?
https://www.redd3ad.com/members/redd3ad-com.1/
Consider changing your name to your actual name or to L3gacy as you have used here. It's more friendly and people will relate more to a real person than a 'corporate' or placeholder account. Keep that account for official business if you like, but have a true persona as your main account for chatting to other fans. Personality builds communities. People want to know the person behind the forum. Hence why we, here, on Adminstrata have
@Al and
@Cedric - it's so you know who you are talking to. We're just ordinary dudes (except Cedric is hot AF).
Anyway, hope that helps in some way. All the best with the site. Please keep us up to date with how you get on.
I wish you the best of luck. 
