First off there is no problem whatsoever with Betty posting the idea here. it is exactly what this section is for( as in the name )
A lot of threads in this section are people having problems operating the forums/user controls's that to me is a user fault not a suggestion.
As for the theme we spent literally hours and hours picking this one out, The colours were chosen to represent the main colours of GTI's we see on the roads and the layout had to be simple so people with cars not computer savvy people could easily navigate around. Yes it does look slightly dated, but it is of the age of the MK 5 and i think as our Mk5's age the forums identity keeps in kilter.
The main point though is we are not here to attract members or sponsor's or advertiser's, and that in itself gives this place it's identity and uniqueness. As far as i am concerned as long as the seller of the stickers gives a fair cut of the proceed's to the running of the forum, then there can be 5000 design's if people want. We don't need there to be a cohesive design, were people say look there's that forum again i am going to check it out, because we simply don't need new members, because we are not tied to promotion. Obviously new member's enrich the forum but it's better that they come here looking for info rather than because they saw it was a popular place.
The ethos has not changed since the first day. This forum is purely an information based web-site for owners of the Mk5 platform. Here simply for us lot to share information about faults and products. All the meets and friendship's made, is just a really great by product of people being people and as long as we keep in our mind's the original ethos then it's not to hard to keep it working well without adding problem's.