Defiitely the direction I'd like to be headed. But there is so much difference between portraying a professional corporate image and where DaniWeb seems to be at now, graphic design wise. Is it possible to portray corporate America without huge banner ads plastered all over? Sometimes I feel that's the only difference between a hobby site and a professional site. Food for thought.

Basically I think you are pretty spot on. I've designed my site so that it portrays an image of not being a one man band, but rather an established company. This is done through standard ways, simple design, no ads, common links (mission statement, faq, etc etc), and so on. Fine it doesn't look like a big corporate site, but it (I hope) looks like a reasonably competent product based commercial site.

This coupled with my policies for turn around on support and sales enquiries give people the 'professional' support they are expecting. My tone, and willingness to roll up the sleeves and solve customer problems give them the personalized approach that I know a lot of them appreciate.

Really picking an approach for your site depends on what your goals are. Do you want to make money from it? Or are you doing it out of the goodness of your heart? The two are very different.

A few reasons I like "daniweb" better than "TechTalk Forums":
*It's easier to type daniweb.com.
*There aren't just forums here, there's also the code snippets, etc.
*I didn't even know you named it after yourself, until I read this thread. And it doesn't really seem like a hobby site.(at least compared to mine, it looks so unprofessional and "cheesy" at the moment I won't even give a link...)

I was inspired by this site and created my own...
<< url snipped because no site specifics / site ads are permitted in this forum - post in the site reviews forum instead >>
Now I just need members!

I would also suggest close-knit. People can get information everywhere but they would rather stay where they are known.

I tend to support a cross between a corporate environment and a relaxed atmosphere.

Being a relaxed Midwestern individual, I tend to support the community atmosphere: where I know each member of the site on a personal level, and where each member can relate to each other in various ways.

However, when a site reaches 27k+ members, I recognize the need for a more structured design. Without corporate influences, any site can easily fall to newbies and easily lose its educational charm.

I think Daniweb is currently right on the money -- members get their questions answered professionally and promptly, but are treated with a Minnesota style small town response.

I like this site. I havent been on in a few months and thats because I havent been doing anything web related in forever. Just busy with work and staying focused on that.

I agree with a lof of the responses you've gotten. I think the close-nit is great, i like everyone on here and think a lot of people on here give some good advice not only from a webmasters stand point but also from a consumer stand point.

Just from not being here in a few months I have noticed that you've gotten more traffic and more daily posts.. GJ!

Thanks Brock and everyone else! I appreciate your comments