I really want my forum to get a boost

I run a forum (linked in my signature) and I really really want it to get a new membership boost. Even five new members who are active would do absolute wonders. I've tried advertising via stumbleupon, both paid and just submitting things, and it doesn't do much. I guess my forum's not impressive enough for thumbs ups. I also advertise via Project Wonderful. I post about it on forums, but I don't have many forums that I'm able to do that on. Often people look at it, but then it just doesn't appeal to them. I have a twitter account for it but it only has about 250 followers.

What can I do? My 'dream' is that there's 12 new threads a day that I didn't post myself. A very modest dream, but I figure I have to start small. How can I achieve that? And when I'm posting in forums about the site, what's the best way to go about it that makes it the most appealing? Perhaps using some psychology.

No offence, but it's really bright and flashy, and kind of hurts my eyes... I'll join n share some thoughts because I like to talk
But maybe some more user-friendly options... And market your forums like a small business, go to googleads AND search for sites that get YOUR site out there.


But really... the colors are killing me xD lol!

Really? No one's told me that before to be honest. Which colours are hurting your eyes?

The purple and white how it contrasts the black. It could just be me...

... what black? The black of the font?

mhum I dunno it just hurts my eyes, like looking at a computer at night.
My eyes are sensitive though, so I notice that this forum has a grey backdrop and that makes it easier on my eyes, also they incorporate black as well, which is easy to look at. If it were me, my perfect forum would be all dark colored just so it wouldn't hurt my eyes. When I had my own forums, I incorporated a setting to where the users could customize the pages that they were looking at, just because I know that if some brighter sites hurts my eyes than it might hurt others' eyes also.

hmn, I'll look into creating an alternate skin, but purple is sort of our signature colour. I personally find dark sites hard to look at! Maybe I can come up with a solution.

My problem is the wall of text forum descriptions. The creative effort is wasted if they won't be read. I squinted through the first few words and said screw it.

Thanks, I'll work on those too.

Constructive criticism:

I checked it out,
It's a tad plain looking and it doesn't look like there's a lot of topics.
Maybe some color changes and subtopics will attract people.

My first thought was that there's too much black, white, and purple. I agree that maybe a color change would work, you can always keep the purple but incorporate other colors so it's not as harsh a contrast.

And as for describing each forum, maybe reduce the amount of words used. Like take Research's description,

"Sometimes you?re in the middle of something creative, and you need to do a bit of research.

What do Romanian castles look like? How tall are polar bears? How wide are beds? What?s a 5 year old child?s head circumference? Is it legal to put posters up on bus stops? What would someone?s reaction to a strange man in their bedroom be? What?s the better flavour- chocolate or vanilla? Ask your questions here without looking like too much of a freak. Research the slacker?s way.
If you see a great resource, share that with us here too!"

And make it more like the Recommendations description,

"Recommend resources and fun links. And if you're a regular member, you can shamelessly self promote."

You could even just cut the second paragraph out entirely, it's pretty self explanatory.

The colour scheme is rather garish and the forum descriptions are far too long. Once sentence normally suffices.

It seems plenty active, though.

Not many topics? You mean sections of forums? No, there's not many, because when I did have many, it didn't work for us, because of the number of members we have.