Hey Billy,
Obviously, the greateest aspect of 'nuke' sites is the ease of which webmasters can add/edit pages easily as well as being able to add a multitude onf functions (modules).
However, the general consensus with these types of sites is that they all basically look the same. I realize design changes can be made and there are many themes available. But they all, for the most part, have the same structure.
Which leads me to critiquing your site...
Designers of nuke sites really have to find a way to dig into the code, to some degree, to cut into the cookie-cutter look, and break away from it.
The biggest problem you have is the front page. When I arrived at your site, I had no clue about the nature of your site. And after staring at it for 30 seconds, I still didn't. I realize you have a big paragraph (front and center), but I didn't bother to read it, nor will most people.
People tend to skim the pages. If visitors want to read a story, they'll go to the bookstore. They want to know right away, can this site help me? -what can this site do for me? -what's it all about? -why should I care ?
You've probably heard in advertising, that you have mere seconds to grab the readers interest (especially billboards / signs). The web is no different.
With the above said, all the links on the left navbar almost become irrelevant and meaningless.
"Downloads" -what downloads? what am I going to download?
"shopping" -shopping? -what kind of things do you have to sell?
What I would do, is start with one link at a time, and decide, how can I sell this link to the visitor?
Downloads > why not feature one of them, like the colour picker on the front page, with a catchy title and jazzy picture.
"The Web Designer's Best Friend!, Download it FREE"
I find the pages kinda long.
You need to find ways to shorten it. The header seems a bit long, vertically. I would also hunt down the file that contains the blocks and edit it. eg). the left navbar is in list format. I would take out that code and replace with
, that way it will eliminate the extra space at the top and bottom. You may want to trim down the cellpadding also.
A members profile block? Again, necessary? The member I was looking at had a grand total of '0' posts. Do you think this is a positive or negative?
Useless information.
I realize with nuke sites, it is very tempting to utilize all or most available modules, but Is it really necessary to show statistics? And the clock, although pretty cool, is it really necessary?
Other stuff
In the forums, unless I mis-read it, you are looking for site admins to help? and... among other things, an essay ?? You are looking for visitors and hopefully members, right? Putting people through a rigorous sign up process isn't going to help. Are you paying? or is this volunteer?
Where are you? Location-wise. I know in this day and age, it doesn't really matter that much, but I'm always curious where a site originates. After some digging, it looks like Vermont. Well the fact that you are in U.S.A as opposed to say, Sweden or some other overseas country, may appeal to me, because I could relate a little better.
Well, that's it for now.
I hope it was of some use.
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