Critique please

I have just given my forums a 2009 overhaul and new look.

www.thespainforums.com

Several reasons for choosing the skin.

Its simple in design and layout. Plus you can keep the options and buttons people can use to a minimum. Half of the buttons, quick links etc only serve to add more confusion to older members.

Search function is very prominent, in theory it should mean people stay around longer.

I never knew that skins now come with ad boxes until I added this one

The header logo has had a complete make over to just being one word now, plus a little smiley sun.

Please be gentle with me

Looks good. I see you covered our basic tips, etc.

I would still love to see you with a high end logo. You would be surprised by the high quality of the work that freelancers provide at forums like DigitalPoint for a modest investment.

I might have picked up one or two tips from here Joe

It is surprising just what tips you do pick up from here by hanging around long enough.

I think you could really benefit from a good logo I am currently re-designing my forum with a custom skin but i like how unregistered users are encouraged to register by moving the forum down

Im waiting to see the effects on search engine placements now.

I made a couple of changes in the background plus the h1 header got changed from "The Spain Forums" tag line "Costa Blanca Expats Community" to just "Spain". Which will in theory (mine dont normally work ) give more emphasis to the word Spain.

Member feedback has been very very good.

The only complaints so far about that skin have been from one person about the font, size of font and the ability to not choose what forums you can see the latest posts in. And even after altering the size of font, the person was still saying it was to small to read.

New registrations have almost doubled, since putting the skin in place.

Give it a couple of weeks now to see how search engines get on with it. Which is the sweaty part