Well, I've used SMF back in the days, so to speak. I even used to do a bit of bugfixing on their releases whenever I found something that needed fixing. But I must admit that nowadays they pretty much have got it down.
I wasn't familiar with this style before I saw the forum itself, but I'm very much liking it - and if you by any chance happen to know my views on websites, it takes something extra to make me like it, so that could be considered a plus.
For some strange reason, I've always liked layouts like these, but I can't explain exactly why. It's a pleasing sort of mess with logic to it, I guess.
Another thing I really dig is the keyboard shortcuts like alt+s to post and so forth. It makes it alot easier avoiding using the mouse, which is good if you can do it.
Anyhow, I don't know if you're planning on having more content on the forum itself (more offtopic boards perhaps, depending on if it should be primarily a writer fora or a scifi and writer fora). Of course, the more books you get written and published, the more sections you will probably need.
It might also be an idea to have seperate foras for each general type of science fiction (eg. speculative science fiction, "real" science fiction and everything else; I don't know all of them, since I'm not a writer myself (although I think I am imaginative enough to be one, I'm just too busy with work and stuff to settle down to begin writing)
