Ive always thought lighter colors where better for a more wide range of a community... but i use dark colors anyways haha.

Lighter colors are easier to read with more text than dark, so i guess thats why lighter colors are better.

Absolutely definitely. Just look at my current struggle all day between navy blue and purple on DaniWeb. People are saying the purple looks girly, while shades of blue are more techie. If you use lots of dark colors, it somehow seems to represent the hack0rz crowd, the script kiddies, the younger crowd, etc. while lots of whites and whitespace seem more professional IMO for the older crowd.

Color is a major factor.
But more than that is ease of use of the site and its content
the site may have good color combination
but if the site does not have anything to provide to the visitors then they will not come back no matter how good the color is

I agree with yni420, the content is the site. A choice of forums brings in more members or interest. The color scheme is least important, if it´s tasteful. Purple stands for royalty, not girls...

I think that a site's layout can almost be as important as the content. The site may be full of excellent content, but if it isn't user-friendly with an intuitive layout and navigation, your visitors won't find the content.

I am moderately color blind on the green/red side. So if you use shades of those colors close to each other I will not be able to tell the difference.
Some colors actually hurt to look at. :cry: I am not sure this has to do with my color blindness or that I am a freak. :rolleyes:

So color is important to me.