Re-working Artorg Input Needed

[colicab-d]

Ive recently decided to revamp my WebDesign / Digital Art Community taking it to version5. So Im looking to see what kind of features and suggestions you guys as forum owners and regular gurus would find useful and implement it to my site in the new build / re-design.

Currently the site looks like this http://www.artorg.co.uk

Its pretty gfx heavy with a slightly difficult to use UI.
So far Im thinking the following would be good for the site :

- Forums Only
- Mixture of Flash and Css as its main bulk
- Modified forums using conditionals to allow for :
-- Gallery*
-- Articles*
- Less Gfx heavy layout
- Re-worked UI to allow simple navigation
- CGNetworks style thumbnails in Gallery forums
- Gallery per user
- DeviantArt Style User Page +

*Inline with forums
+ Maybe DeviantID Style

Currently Im looking to finish this within a 2-3 month timescale with a small beta tester group to iron out bugs before opening registration to all users.

Im also toying with a completely fresh DB as the current one has seen some empty and un-used tables as weve upgraded and installed and un-installed software and hacks.

Lastly Im toying with a dedicated news team and of course RSS feeds for the site, tho am unsure about having any kind of portal and would prefer to rely on a modified forumhome or something.

Anyone who can bring technical knowledge or would like to join the team on this project plz let me know via PM or Email

However I would like as much inout from vb-developers and end users alike on this one, thus this thread.

Thanks - Dave / Colicab