Minimalistic Style - Designed for Speed
 

The following forum, based on vB 3.8.x, has been stripped of ALL unessential features for guests (members have access to more features).

http://www.laptopgpsworld.com/

Check the forum sections and the individual threads. Many people will not like the plain look, but it is not a social forum designed to look pretty. It is a technical forum where people come to find and/or share information. I removed ALL unneeded buttons, links, images, all that clutter, so the text stands out, and there is as little distractions as possible.

I'm posting it here so perhaps it may inspire others to REMOVE, rather than add, features to their vBulletin installations. :-)

For those who are into speed, check out the home page, it consists of only 2 http requests, just like the forum sections. Threads which contain no user uploaded images or AdSense, also consist of only 2 http requests.

One of the popular review threads (this one) with numerous images, loads, according to Google Webmaster Tools, on average in 0.5 seconds. :-)

It's far from pretty, but it's fast :-)

In my opinion, reliability and load time trump "prettiness". That is not to say that you could not have some additional background work done to keep from the dullness of the page.

It really depends on what your target audience is like. If they are mobile users or business professionals, they are really not going to care about look/feel as long as it is functional and easy to use.