I know someone has prolly said this already... but lots of cool/1337 hacks/hax DON'T MAKE A FORUM GOOD! :)

The hacks necessary to add functionality to your board are good, and members will enjoy and use them. But some people can go way overboard, and impliment hacks that are of no use to the community at all.

My site has been in operation since February of this year. I had IPB up until Early June when I decided to move to VB3. At the time of the move I had roughly 300 members. I'm currently at 734 with a projected 1,000 member mark somewhere around the turn of the year. But it wasn't until I got VB3 that it picked up. Another great idea is to just keep posting on hot topics. Just keep the forum busy, even if its you doing most of the posting for now. It wouldn't hurt to throw out a topic thats debateable. I have hacks and everything on my board too. But in the end, its the user interaction that matters most. Advertise advertise advertise. Post the URL and a small description of what your site is and has to offer then post that in related Yahoo groups and ask webmasters at other related sites to post links. It's worked for me. Just some ideas is all. But most of all keep them interested. Keep them WANTING to come back.

Has anyone mentioned the amount of ads?