I'm pretty new around here, as many of you probably know. Despite that, I'm starting to like this place. This forum lacks the highbrow, cynical aura that's about many a forum these days. As such, it's a bit unpleasant to see that there are so few people online here. So I've made a small list of suggestions.
I really hope they don't come out as sounding all-knowing, condescending, arrogant, or stuff like that.
I'm familiar with forums that are just starting out. I've had 3 forums over 4 years or so, and I know what highs and lows one should expect, and how to counteract them.
1. People are generally quiet and shy at the beginning. That's why the staff should usually start with the threads. After several months of this, users slowly start to realise that people aren't there to devour them, and will make threads of their own.
2. Less subforums. Keep only the basic ones. One for introductions, one for suggestions/announcements, about two for non-psychology related forums, and about the same for psychology related ones. Merge the Lounge, Arts and Entertainment, and Health and Fitness into one. Unite Society and Current Events. The same with Relationships and Emotional Advice. So on, so forth. This is only temporary, though. Once the subforums are brimming with topics of a certain category (like books/films/music in the Lounge), you can split them again.
3. Though it helps with accommodating new users, one should keep the game threads in check. There must be a lot of forums out there based on MBTI profiles, so one should strive to create something original. Originality comes from interesting, thought-provoking threads. Game threads, albeit necessary and helpful in their own way, don't do much to add a spark of uniqueness to a place.
4. A non-default forum theme. It avails the aforementioned originality problem. It's not hard to change the colour scheme of a forum, and make new buttons. I've never skinned a phpBB2 forum (my experience lies in MyBB and SMF), but I doubt it's very different.
That's pretty much all. Once again, I hope that doesn't sound too demanding or arrogant. These are just some small observations I've collected over my time as both administrator and normal user. I hope they help
)...but isn't it really nice like this, being quiet and calm and all??