I fully understand the fact that its more than ascetics, but when I first came to the forum I was greatly confuzed as to if I was at the right place or not and how established the forum was from the looks of things.
It appears to new members as though the forum was just recently created and no work has gone into making it "feel" like an arduino community more than just a yabb forum promotion.
Having more visually pleasing features as well as maybe like a project of the month that could be voted upon could greatly improve people's intentions about being serious about the board I believe.