[K. Molen]

I found Kindleboards.com a while back and considered joining, but it was just too visually busy for me to put up with.

All the junk at the top I suppose I could've gotten used to, but every other person have huge signatures, making most threads look like Google image search threw up on it.

I don't doubt that the discussion taking place there can be engaging and fun, but so can conversations elsewhere. For me, making a website visually appealing should be one of the top priorities for webmasters, right after content and functionality.

If you don't, you risk alienating new visitors. I'm sure existing regulars don't care about too much about poor design, or they wouldn't have become regulars, but I suspect they wouldn't mind a site that's easy on the eyes either.