Firstly, you can fuck off. Go on, fuck off out of it. Scram, skedaddle, and piss off.
With that obligatory response out of the way, I'll happily share some thoughts: I don't think there's anything particularly unique, per se, but I don't think there has to be in order to attract new posters and keep them using the website. I assume that's your aim, as well as to have a natural, self-sustaining quality level? You just need a sustainable place where people enjoy using the site, enjoy talking to the people on it, have respect for those on it, but also have a good interface through which to use the site.
I don't know for sure, I only really started posting and reading the forum the other day, but my first impression is that there's a favourable mixture of the things other sites do well, with a paucity of the things they do wrong. I might have missed it, and you're probably all a bunch of unconscionable bastards, but it seems that there's no overbearing fascistic agenda from the ownership/moderators, like on RAWK. Try calling them 'unconscionable bastards'.
From the outside looking in, they attempt to control almost every post in the name of attracting 'quality posters'. The side effect of this is that they treat their userbase like school children, close almost all of their transfer threads and ban people for saying things they don't like. They'll open threads with 'be careful' or 'be sensible. Fuck off. Rather than attracting quality posters, it drives them away. Anybody with an ounce of intelligence runs from that type of control. For me, it's not what the internet should be about; some random guy thinking you should be 'privileged' to receive 'recognition from the moderation team'. Don't they realise their site is just a few lines of code with a different set of permissions?
That said, what RAWK seems to do fairly well is provide a site with a good, well-ordered structure. That, for me at least, is fairly important. It allows you to skip the content you don't want to read, and focus on the stuff you do want. It feels ordered, which is good, but in a 'police state' type of way, which is bad. People don't want to be put in cages and told to behave; intelligent people act sensibly because they want to, not because somebody pretending to be better than them tells them to.
TLW is pretty much the polar opposite: The site design is borderline shambolic; It goes offline much of the time; is slow as shit to browse due to the massive, poorly compressed images used for adverts; is a nightmare for mobile browsing, due to it not using tapatalk; the search function doesn't work, making using the same thread more than once a bit tricky; it's based on old software so has very few features, and generally looks pretty poorly put together.
However, the separation between members and mods is pretty much non-existant. Nobody is better than anybody else based on the meaningless status below their name. In fact, there is no meaningless shit below their name, which is good. They also have a core (which is disbanding, and shrinking) of intelligent, knowledgable posters. But it's fractured, and the total lack of moderation means the lack of civility and respect can spoil things.
You seem to have a mix of the two things: An ordered website, with decent features and a working tapatalk mobile app; with the ability to say 'cunt' without it being starred out, and say something about a player we're linked with without being thrown out due to not being an approved source.
You have to work out what site you want to offer (I've no idea how long this site has been here, BTW, I'm working off the assumption you've not been about all that long), and who you want to be. All I can tell you is what I want from a website, and opinions may vary on that. I want an occasionally serious, informed debate/discussion about players, ownership, and football in general, but I want to enjoy using a forum. Talking to people I find interesting, but also having a fucking laugh. Why'd somebody go to a site for a prolonged period if it was a chore? I've left sites which have developed into hard work.
A bit of what interests ya, mixed with a bit of what entertains ya, whilst being treated like an equal, all wrapped up in an interface which makes it easy to use and access. That's a winning site. Also, I like the 'News' tab; it's a good way to get articles. Adding to that would be good. And I like the 'like' button, rather than a reputation system.
Also, this winger looks tasty. <-- On-topic post.
