Great to see another gaming forum
About the shout box - it's a matter of taste, I believe. We use it but at the very bottom of our forums - and then I have to admit it's not very active. I used it on
www.thatgameforum.com too - and in the top which I could see made it more busy. Question is where you wish to place your 'power'. For some a shout box is an annoying 'noisy' figure and for others it's yet a great tool to communicate and interact with people.
I really like the simplicity of the forum. It seems easy and 'clean'. I have to admit that I don't like the background that much. It seems a little wicket that you can't see what it is (and I feel I have to squeese my eyes together to see it lol). I always beleived, that if you wish to show a picture, show it - don't hide it. As an example you're welcome to have a look at my new (not yet open for 'public' but you can see it) forum here:
www.cyrenforum.com - choose Cyrene in the style chooser - I used a full sized background picture there. We also use background pictures on
www.entropiaplanets.com - but the forum itself is wider than the Cyrene Forum and I didn't use a full background picture but a picture only visible in the left side - merging into the bg color.
I really like the newest members widget at the bottom. Where did you get that?
Anyway, there are many ways of doing it - and you did a good over all job
- I wish you all the best