AV Forums review

[pave]

AV Forums
Rating: 4 stars
www.avforums.com
Reviewed By: Robert Irvine

Describing itself as the biggest site of its kind in Europe, AV Forums boasts almost 40,000 registered users. Now in its fifth year, it serves as the official forums of several consumer electronics magazines, as well as being a hugely popular community in its own right.

What we liked:
The breadth of gadgets covered by AV Forums is resoundingly impressive. Although the main emphasis is on home entertainment hardware such as DVD players, plasma TVs and amplifiers, there are dedicated discussion boards for all manner of devices. These include digital cameras and camcorders; MP3, iPod and other digital music; and mobile phones and PDAs. Here you're free to post any request for help, no matter how basic or complex it seems, so queries from novices sit happily alongside expert advice.

One particularly notable aspect of the website is the lack of bad language, aggressive behavior and spam in individual threads. Each forum is closely moderated to ensure members follow the rules, creating a friendly, unassuming atmosphere for helping others, rather than a 'listen-to-me' arena for gadget obsessives to show off their technical knowledge.

What we didn't like:
As so many different product types are catered for, you might have a little trouble getting help with a specific model. However, general problems invariably yield plenty of responses.





A review from Webuser...........thinks congrats are in order...........

[IronGiant]

Nice review, but a bit of a discrepancy between 40,000 members and:

AVForums Statistics
Threads: 671,595, Posts: 6,697,756, Members: 232,394

[alexs2]

It is a nice review,and good to see that some of the values we try very hard to uphold are appreciated outside of the forums also.

The membership discrepancy did amuse me though...I think we got beyond 40,000 over 4 years ago.

[pave]

Just mailed them ,pointing out there mistake......

[IronGiant]

To be fair, a lot of members have never posted anything and a fair few have never been on line since registering, so the number of active members is lower than the forum statistics quote, but on the other hand the statement they made was "registered " members.

[C225]

I just think it's out of date as it says 5 years but it should be 8 years.

[Mr Incredible]

Originally Posted by IronGiant

To be fair, a lot of members have never posted anything and a fair few have never been on line since registering, so the number of active members is lower than the forum statistics quote, but on the other hand the statement they made was "registered " members.

The new and improved Member search selection fields allowed me to search for all members who have posted this year and who have more than 2 posts to their name (to exclude the one post wonders as well as the none posters).

This year (1st Jan onwards) there have been 38,332 members who fulfil this criteria.

In the same period, there were 8706 members who posted just the once.

[kBm]

Originally Posted by pave

What we didn't like:
As so many different product types are catered for, you might have a little trouble getting help with a specific model. However, general problems invariably yield plenty of responses.

Anyone else read that as 'we dont have anything really bad to say, but we have to put something in....'

[Miyazaki]

Originally Posted by IronGiant

Nice review, but a bit of a discrepancy between 40,000 members and:

AVForums Statistics
Threads: 671,595, Posts: 6,697,756, Members: 232,394

Maybe it means active users rather than people who just signed up to get free delivery from scan?

[lord-dudester]

no mention of the excellent av forums video productions... would have got 10 starts if they'd taken the time to explore the site in its entirety !

[Mr Incredible]

Originally Posted by Games Guru

Maybe it means active users rather than people who just signed up to get free delivery from scan?

There is no way to distinguish Scan members to ordinary-non-active members. Also depends what is meant by "active" See my figures above.

[wellladida]

Originally Posted by pave

AV Forums
Rating: 4 stars
www.avforums.com
Reviewed By: Robert Irvine

Describing itself as the biggest site of its kind in Europe, AV Forums boasts almost 40,000 registered users. Now in its fifth year, it serves as the official forums of several consumer electronics magazines, as well as being a hugely popular community in its own right.

What we liked:
The breadth of gadgets covered by AV Forums is resoundingly impressive. Although the main emphasis is on home entertainment hardware such as DVD players, plasma TVs and amplifiers, there are dedicated discussion boards for all manner of devices. These include digital cameras and camcorders; MP3, iPod and other digital music; and mobile phones and PDAs. Here you're free to post any request for help, no matter how basic or complex it seems, so queries from novices sit happily alongside expert advice.

One particularly notable aspect of the website is the lack of bad language, aggressive behavior and spam in individual threads. Each forum is closely moderated to ensure members follow the rules, creating a friendly, unassuming atmosphere for helping others, rather than a 'listen-to-me' arena for gadget obsessives to show off their technical knowledge.

What we didn't like:
As so many different product types are catered for, you might have a little trouble getting help with a specific model. However, general problems invariably yield plenty of responses.





A review from Webuser...........thinks congrats are in order...........

Originally Posted by AVF toolbar

Run for enthusiasts by enthusiasts since January 2000

C225 beat me to it

[pave]

There quick......the review has changed.........

Describing itself as the biggest site of its kind in Europe, AV Forums boasts more than 230,000 registered users



http://www.webuser.co.uk/sites/site_...hp?rev_id=2508

Got a mail back, saying they have updated the info, review origanally posted in 2005, it is under .....latest web site reviews.....

Good to see they changed it so quickly

[kBm]

Originally Posted by pave

There quick......the review has changed.........

Describing itself as the biggest site of its kind in Europe, AV Forums boasts more than 230,000 registered users



http://www.webuser.co.uk/sites/site_...hp?rev_id=2508

Got a mail back, saying they have updated the info, review origanally posted in 2005, it is under .....latest web site reviews.....

Good to see they changed it so quickly

Still reads 40,000.

[AgentCool]

I just used the advanced member search and found there are currently 1056 of us diehards who have posted 1000 or more times. Interesting statistic!