High Performance ? That's kind of a strange category ... the layout is good, but the white text an dark background is a bit hard to read, at least for me. It shouldn't be too much of a problem, since other pages with white text on dark background have had enormous success. Other than that all I can say is good luck finding people to post there.
Usually forums serve a purpose, often a domain specific one. The Microsuck forum, for example, tends to focus on M$ and appropriate ramifications such as alternatives to M$ (Mac, Linux, FreeBSD etc.), as well as more general sections. Most decently sucessful forums are structured something like this .... a focus, recent events, ramifications, alternatives, and miscellaneous.
The other forum I posted at before this one was a software forum, and it had a similar layout, with software (mostly audio/video) as the focus, numerous alternatives, news, impact, and plenty of miscellaneous.
Now, a forum called generalchat ... hmmm, what is the focus of this forum ? Usually, the more general a forum is the less people will go there, simply because there are so many other places (chat rooms) that would not only be live, but also probably more populated.
Ok, to put it in simpler terms ... I found the Microsuck site and forums by googleing it ... I was interested in alternatives to M$. I don't quite remember what I googled, but it had something to do with either M$ Window$ or Linux or something along these lines. I probably found it indirectly as a link from some other site. How are people going to find your forum ? How often does one google, or even search for "generalchat" ... and even more so ... will your forum be #1 on the list ? or even #100 ? I recommend trying to have at least 1 main focus, and of course lots of misc sections.
