EMERGENCY MEETING: Whither the Board?

[Enigma!]

...

This first ever emergency meeting of the Literati Club shall now come to order.

First of all, allow me to say that the board is NOT being disbanded. You are my friends (in Mandi-chan's case, my beloved), my support and the closest thing I may have in this life to a truly caring family. We ain't disbanding.

But we may be moving and changing. I am about to take the plunge into creating my own Webcomic. Those of you who have read the Travelogue Ideas thread in the Writing section of our board already have a good idea what the comic will be like. I want this forum to be linked directly to the main site my comic will be on. So I decided to look at other Webcomics (Penny Arcade, Megatokyo, Templar, AZ) to see what their forums are like.

This forum is ugly. The layout could stand some redesigning and I'm not sure if Proboards can do better than this. I want to draw people to the forum - form a community, but a community is hard to build if the design is unattractive.

In about a year I hope to have the comic up and running, and I may want to change the look of this board. If I can't get the layout I'm looking for from the current provider, I may have to rebuild it with another.

But I want your opinion before I do any of that. I've learned my lesson. I will not make any major changes to the board without getting the opinion of my loyalists first. If you can think of any changes that can be made to this board (or of any free message board/forum sites that are better than this one) please let me know.
SOON. Because once the site is up, I'm going to be cattle-prodding inviting everyone I know from several places (forums and RL) to join, and I want them to like what they see and return here often. Same for those who join from reading the comic.

I would at least like to hear from my admins before I make a decision. Thank you.

The floor is now open.

[J. T./Jessica]

Actually, the design isn't that bad, the other messageboard I frequent lately is also on proboards and it's tied into a site... It's total membership is over eight hundred and eighty with at least twenty or more member active daily - and it's only two years old. I actually think that the board can work as is (considering that Proboards is one of the better free messageboard providers out there, in my opinion, better than EZ-Boards or PHPbb) - we just need a hook to draw people in; your webcomic.

[J. T./Jessica]

Amanda says; "I think the board is fine as it is, if he wants the board to look better then make a seperate board. But other than that, I pretty much agree with J.T."

[Enigma!]

Hmm. But can you think of any way to make it better (other than more people; I'm hoping the comic will solve that little problem)?

[J. T./Jessica]

Amanda thinks it's fine the way it is...

And actually, I agree, it's got places for almost anything someone would be interested in, plus it's a nice, relaxed environment.

[Enigma!]

Really? Anything I should add/get rid of?

[J. T./Jessica]

Amanda says to tell you that when we say it's fine as it is, we mean it's FINE as it is.

And she also wants to know why the obsession with getting new people.

[Mortimus]

Oh that's easy to answer, to help spread his madness thoughout the internet faster silly. ;D The board is ok, it's not the worst designed website, so I won't make complaints about it. You need any help with the webcomic? I'm getting a little better at drawing.

[Enigma!]

I'm lonely, for one.

For another, I think that part of making a Webcomic is the feedback you get from the people who read it. This forum will probably be the fist place those people will come to to talk about it. I wanna give them a reason to stick around.

If you two say the site is fine, then I'll not mess with it.

Next question, who can help me design the site for the comic?

[Enigma!]

Okay! I've made my decision. The forum is staying the way it is.

(Well, okay, yeah, for obvious reasons, when the comic is up I'll be adding a Travelogue discussion board, but otherwise...)

And now I can just worry about the site... Thank you for your input.

EDIT: And thanks for the offer, Morti, but I'll be drawing the comic myself.