I remember Julio mentioning what a small percentage of people actually take part in the forums, despite the massive traffic this site gets.

This isn't a genius idea or anything new, but for some reason it never came to my mind until now....

Many sites have a section on the main page that links to the "newest topics" of the forum. That way, for example, the newest 5 topics would be listed in a menu on the front page with news etc...

I think that people who find these topics interesting would ultimately click on them and maybe even sign up. I know I've done that myself a few times, and it was all because the links were right there on the front page. Otherwise, I would have never expressed interest.

This should be fairly simple to implement with a little CGI since most forum softwares are actually designed to do this and have a special file that has the most recent topics listed inside. There might even be a hack for it, if this isn't an integral part of the software to begin with.

Just my 2¼ cents.

That's a pretty good idea.

I always thought the link to the forums on the front page was a bit hidden. It wouldn't hurt to make it a bit more noticeable.

Yeah that's a nice idea.

I seldom post in a forum of a web site unless there is a topic glaringly inviting me to!

I have had that same idea on my mind for quite some time now however it's not an option found on vB and usually people hack their boards to get the latest forum posts... I haven't got around that one yet though I did plan to have them up by the time we convert the site to be database driven (still some time away from that).

I'll take a closer look to vB's template set, etc. and see if I can get those up this week, also a new news posting system should be up pretty soon, it will have an integrated comments system, too.

Good idea. But other than viewing the forums, will they stay & participate?
Problem is: things like the "contests" draws alot of people for that time period; then they disappear.
I would consider an ongoing prize give-a-way rather than an all-or-nothing contest. That way you could could have the header Win Prizes! Join TechSpot Forums
Register, Participate w/ quality posts. Winner picked @ ramdom; might keep the excitement & participation level up.