Oh yeah. It was mostly the mascot and the font of the logo, which don't seem quite serious, as well as design, mostly. It seemed kind of forgotten and not cared too much about. But I mean, the site is much more functional than it appeared to me in the first place, it's just that it took me a while to get to know this. And while appearance might not add to the functionality of the site/forum, it is definitely a plus when it comes to a) attracting new people, b) making them stay to see what's more to discover in that website. I thought the design looked quite old and not eye-candy at all (colours, buttons, menus, layout etc).
Even if your site is the best in the world, the guests/mere visitors of this site won't know that in the first place. Plus, a better-looking website shows that the people who run the site have bothered more about the website. People say "don't judge a book by its cover", but of course that's only true about books you've already read
When you see a book in a bookstore, all the information you get about the book is coming from the cover, so a good cover will make more people take a quick read at the book and see if it's worth reading. A good cover doesn't guarantee a good book, but the chances are higher.
But that's just me
I will be glad if I know I helped, and I generally expect to see many changes in terms of layout and appearance with the whole social-networking-music-expensive-thing that's coming up in the next few months, which is why I've started mentioning my dislike of the layout recently, in the hopes that it'll make a difference :X