A Concise List of Site Suggestions

Herra again. I have some more suggestions! And it's all nice and neatly organized too.

Keepers:
These are just things that I feel really benefit the forum members and make life here a little easier.

1. Random Gallery Image
   Loove it. Really gives a great view into the gallery of the most recent images. Since there really is no way to see if the gallery has been updated without going to the gallery itself, this little box comes in handy.
   
2. Latest Topics
   Although the scrolling is unnecessary, it's really useful to see the latest topics while you're not on the forum main page for obvious reasons.
   
3. Livechat
   I like to have the full chat open in another tab, but I still like to see what people are saying while I'm typing up a post on the forum. This is great for staying informed about the current conversation and not missing a thing while you're messing around on the forums.

Proposed Forums:

1. Language Forum
   Because Adelate asked for help with his English and I'm a language enthusiast! Well, not just that, but because there really needs to be a place on here where people can speak the language(s) they're most comfortable with speaking. Not to mention there are also language-specific games out there. Chances are, there are a lot of people on here who also want to learn Japanese, too.
   
2. Suggestions Forum
   There's really no right place to post suggestions at the moment. Also, with a separate forum we could totally implement a community wishlist. That is, every post that makes a suggestion keeps track of how many people like it. There will be a sticky in the forum that lists all the forum users' "wishes" and which ones most people want. A very similar concept is implemented on Digsby's user forum. If a person likes the suggestion, they post "+1" and the author of that suggestion (or a mod) keeps a running count of everyone that 1-uped it. Maybe we could make this much simpler by just adding polls to every suggestion post.

Proposed Layout Changes:

1. Design
   The design isn't CSS compliant, meaning it doesn't display right in every browser. A lot of things aren't aligned right and it compromises the usability of the forums. I'll gladly make a design if you'd like when I have the time to do so.
   
2. Scrolling on Latest Topics
   It's a rule of thumb to have no more than one scrolling element on any webpage. With the introduction scrolling vertically underneath the banner, the horizontal scrolling latest topics is just too much movement on the page. It would be a tiny bit bigger, but it would be a good idea to just keep those from scrolling.
   
3. Wider livechat
   The live chat where it is located at the moment is for the most part not very functional. It's too squished for you to access all the features. What I think may be a good idea is to add it to the top of the page right below where the current date/time show up. That way it will be a bit wider, and you could make it just a tad shorter to save page space. The more important something is, the bigger it should be, and the livechat is a fairly active element of this community.

Alrighty, I'd say that's the extent of it right now. I may add more later, but I'll put any additions in different colors so you can see what's new and what isn't.

Wow i love your ideas Kelly ! Just wait like 2-3 weeks ^^ there will be a great surprice =D ... at saturday i will be meeting somebody .. we will get a whole new DESGINED Forum and a homepage !!! with tons of features ^^* just wait abit ^^ but thx for helping us. I will keep your suggestions in mind.

p.s. My friend that i´m meeting has been programming homepages since 6 years.. so i´m sure he have some ideas.. i just phoned him today!

I've been designing websites for 9 years now xD