I had an anonymous user on Necessary Evil ask the following:

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The site I'm working on is super hero and villain themed and I wanted it to be a huge success. So with that in mind do you have any aesthetics that you think would be appropriate for this?

What you can do to make your site a success is a tough thing to give advice on since everyone has different ideas of what a 'success' is. So for starters, my advice would be for you to decide what success means to you. Is it a site with lots of members? Is it a site with people who are posting every day? Is it a site where people fearlessly start and join open threads? Once you've pinpointed what it means to you to be successful, then you can start considering methods of making that happen. The best way to achieve your wishes is by being an example of what you want to see, and finding a way to emphasize what you want on your forum. If you want lots of open threads, then make it easy for people to advertise that they have open threads. If you want a forum with more members than you can count, then create some incentive for recruiting people.

With that being said, the rest of my advice would be the following:

• Make your site easy to identify. Don't leave people guessing what it's about- pick images that scream it, have the words right there.
• Make your site memorable. You don't want to look and be exactly like every other site in your genre, because then there's no real reason why someone should join your site. Offer something people can't get anywhere else.
• Make your site accessible. Easy to read, easy to navigate, easy to use.

So specifically for a superhero and villains forum: I'd put superheroes and villains on it. A lot of sites in that genre tend to feel pretty compact, cluttered, and image-heavy to me, so maybe try something a little different: clean and simple graphics instead of manips with a whole bunch of faces on them, more solid colors, something spacious. 

Good luck, anon!

If you would like to ask me for advice, you can comment on an article or send me a private message! Be sure to include if you would like to remain anonymous.