Does the site need a refresh, a new look, the basic layout will be the same but the backgrounds and so on, what are your thoughts, maybe a rejig of the boards on here too?
It wouldn't hurt to get new art. Something I have noticed on some forums is that the art cycles, meaning it changes every so often even though the main title of the forum remains the same. The Christmas theme wasn't even put up this year when December started.
I don't think the boards need to be changed.
It was mate, have you refreshed your cache lately lol?
Just did. Looks good. :)
I think the place looks fine. It's getting active members that's the challenge.
Is there a way of linking articles to the forum? We could invite people to comment on the articles that way...might draw people in? The simplest way to do it is just create a thread in the relevant area and post a link to it at the end of the article.
I am going to start linking the site internally more too.
The CMS seems to have features built-in for article commentary - I can see a comment count on the main page for example. But maybe that is done separately from the forum?
A simple link to a forum thread might be better; especially if you want more activity there.
Yeah there is not direct way of making the forum interact as a comments addon, just linking here is the best we can do for now.