What do you like in a forums design?

Ah, I have a lot of small preferences when it comes to forums that I'd love to list:

• Dark colors in the back (black tool bars and other things) or even a dark gray.
• Square things > Rounded things (buttons, boxes etc)
• I like a determined square or circle for avatars. Rectangular avatars look ugly to me.
• I don't like the reply boxes the white and the light blue just come off weird on my eyes.
• I think you've done a smashing job with the layout in terms of boxes in the home page.
• The artwork f or the background is very nice.
• I wish the staff list (the link that lists all the staff members) would separate by hierarchy instead of name. This isn't big but it's something I like. I also have seen forums where the staff directory page has their name, avatar and a little bio.

This last part is a question. Do you or Ryan have pictures of older themes on Lake Valor? I think it'd be nice since a lot of the comparisons I make are from other forums that I am currently on so it gives me something concrete to compare with as well.

 

I don't know if they have pictures, but if you go to to here you can see the older themes.

 

that's neat. Thank you!