CGPainting.com - CG and digital painting forum started - suggestions please

[Vyoma]

Hey all. I am not even sure if people recognize me around here (other than Lorelei).

I have been busy, and have been work on a digital painting (CG) forum lately. I have used SMF, done some heavy customizations, and now has a handful of members.

CGPainting.com

I am glad with the activity the members are showing there. They seemed to have pro-actively started a lot of interesting discussions related to the topic subject.

I would be glad if you would visit and give some suggestions on how I can publicize it. I am sort of stumped at it and feel like I am at crossroads.

[Thanoz.]

i checked your forum,actually liked both its concept and content and the fact that advise i given between members, but i think there is still much to improve.I would suggest the use of a portal where basic info about the webiste will be shown and probably random images.Secondly,i didn;t register, but from my browse didn;t like the lack of categories in the forge!You could possibly add sub-forum about art of specific subjects etc!
Anyway 8/10 for your project!
Best Regards,
Thanoz

[Vyoma]

Thanks a ton for those helpful suggestions and pointers.

...the use of a portal where basic info about the webiste will be shown...

A portal page that shows basic information about the website? I guess I have to figure out how code this - SMF as such does not have a portal.

...and probably random images...

Hmmm. I think I will add this too. Presently, only featured artworks from gallery is shown at the top of the forum in order to recognize members who have created exceptional artworks. Do you suggest I remove this? Or should I be placing random images on the portal page - if I figure out how to create one.

...but from my browse didn;t like the lack of categories in the forge!You could possibly add sub-forum about art of specific subjects ...

I noticed this too. Initially, I did not want to put loads of sections and have them empty. Now, the 'Forge' section has sort of outgrown when compared to others.
Topic (post) split is something like this:

Front Desk 20 (65)
+ Chat Corner 9 (38)
Tutorials 27 (43)
Forge 56 (326)

Do you have suggestions on how I can split the Forge section? Should I make sub-sections (child boards) or separate section itself?

Thanks.