How to get people to join your forum ?

[avinash]

In my opinion people choose to participate in a forum which they find interesting or engaging. So if you'll gonna ask me regarding the biggest factor that can contribute to forum engagement will always be the content, yet layout/design is important but what matter is the fact that what can I get if I participate on a certain discussion?

You are correct. Forum looks and design may factor but it comes to content at the end. I know a lot of forums whose desgin may be of late 90's but they just do fine because of the content they have generated over years.