My initial impressions when clicking the links to your website and forum were that I would not want to visit a website that took such a long time to load. Once it finally loaded, however, refreshing did not take long. I'm assuming that is because the website is very, very graphic heavy and I just needed to cache all the images.
So a suggestion: go easy on the images. Use CSS where available to get the same affect. Image-heavy sites often have bad performance.
Secondly, I don't like having to scroll down before I see any actual content. Please move the ads. I have nothing wrong with ads, as I understand that you want to make some revenue. However, if the top of the page has no actual content besides ads and large graphics, I will be put off. Most people browsing the net are lazy and don't want to have to scroll half a page each time they visit a new page on your site. Ads can be moved to the side or bottom, or made smaller.
I'm also not sure of how I feel about the ticker at the top. I suppose it fits with the site's style, so that's good. It's just that in general, such marquees have been phased out of websites since the late 90's so while it might work here, it might be a good idea to think of a better way to convey that information.
Beyond that, I am impressed with the fluidity of the design. It does feel very web 2.0-ish, with the shiny, rounded corners and bright colors. And maybe that's a bit overdone. But other than that, it looks great. Nice job. 🙂
