What should the homepage of a forum look like?

[SilverHawk]

How do you feel the homage of any forum should be? Very simple, or going all out?

I think that the homepage design of a forum needs to be simple and not overwhelming. Too much put into it can turn people away who are looking for a good forum to join. There are forums that I've seen where the homepage has a lot of going on. It's a big turn off to many people, myself included. Any forum project that I was asked to be a part of as an Administrator, Moderator, or Package Team Member always had an easy to to use homepage. Everything else on those forums were simple an easy to navigate as well. All my forums, which were on free forum services like Forum Promotion once was, were very easy on the eyes and welcoming to all. If members had any feedback to give, it wasn't about changing that.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

As a senior, I like simple, too ! When there is a lot of stuff going on, it is harder to find things for new people, and I especially hate it when the forum has some garish color scheme, and not just an easy to read page.
I like DHQ because it is really easy to find everything.