Do you occasionally change your site's design, layout, or color scheme to keep things "fresh" and avoid stagnation? I mean, if your forum has been around for a decade and you've had the same look through the years, don't you think it'd get a bit boring? How do you keep things (design-wise) interesting and intriguing for your members? How do they respond? For me, the only thing I really do is occasionally change the header/logo. I change the font, design, and images that are included in the header. It's been a while since I last did that, because I really like my current logo, but I think change can be good in this case.
If you mean this site (AA) then you can change fairly often because people can navigate forums fairly well. You could even go to an entirely new forum software and people would probably be ok with it because admins are ok users. If you mean your other forum about birds then I would say people are less welcome to change because they may not be as quick to catch on.
I think keeping it uniformed is a good thing but your right from time to time you got to shake up the crowd and change the shop face and give it a new look.
From all the forums that I've been a member of, including this one, I never seem to notice the logo. I can't recall a single forum where the logo stood out to me in anyway. Now that I'm an admin of my own forum, I start to notice my own logo more than I probably should.:o What matters to me most is what the community is composed of. I avoid forums where mods and admins allow or use profanity because this only shows how careless they are. So the answer is no, a change in the logo is not what I see as a "refresher". Things stay fresh when members daily contribute to the forum. Just my thoughts... And BTW this logo on AA is very fine. Simple and professional- that's all you need.
We tend to update our graphics now and then, things like the new thread butons or last post icons and the status icons tend to make the forum look newer
