In your case as to theme support, you should visit
here.
I've been running forums (still do, my latest celebrity forum is
here with integrated chat, media gallery and blog) since 1986 from dialup BBS's to the Internet versions today including PHPBB and vBulletin.
My general advice is if you're going to not focus on a specific demograph, i.e. your target forum audience is "anyone" and your goal is a fun social networking site for all:
- Update your theme, just as you suggested
- Listen to your user feedback - I noticed you had a forum setup for that
- Add a small but colorful logo at the top (i.e. look here on MacRumors)
- Add a description below the logo to explain the site's purpose
- Ask users to think of a new name, pick the best
- Consider renaming it with "Club" or "Tavern" or "Bar" or "Community Center"
However, I have a comment on general purpose forums:
Or, switch gears and actually focus your forum on one subject matter and draw users that way, those who share whatever it is you pick, in common with each other. These days a general purpose forum will suffer in drawing users because there are so many other forums targeted to specific interests and social networking these days seems to follow this trend.
Anyway, looks like you have an integrated community that just needs a little spiffing up and some love put into the interface. Others here might have some cool ideas, so wait for more replies!
-jim
