Good point about WoS - usually I go through the front page on there, and the extra click never bothered me. Perhaps because WoS often loads very quick, perhaps because I sometimes check "what's new?" or follow some other links on the main page. So maybe I was mistaken in my 1st post...
'All that other stuff' (documentation / links / about etc) is a lot less for the ZX81 as compared to the Spectrum which is a very large and diverse ecosystem in comparison. But still it's a valid reason to want to have such things on a site, even if a forum there is the main focus. Let me make a suggestion on a site layout:
Have a look at
Slashdot for general layout in terms of width/height etc of various areas on the main page. Now where /. has the main news stories, imagine the forum index. On the left ("ask Slashdot", "book reviews", "games" etc), imagine a few buttons for things like: about ZX80 / ZX81, news, hardware projects, links to other ZX81 / Sinclair (?) sites, contact / site feedback, ....
Nothing much on top, so you don't have to scroll half a page to see the first forum subjects.
Something like the banner you have now is fine / enough. No big button bar or anything like that on top area of the page (like I said, ZX80/ZX81 universe isn't that big). On the right, hmm... maybe no need for separate area there (just forum index), or perhaps a few odd bits like 1 or 2 news items as directly clickable pictures, a few eBay auctions, a PayPal donate button or other worthless crap like that
which isn't that interesting for most visitors but might just attract the attention of some.
I'd almost feel like doing a mockup of sorts, but website design just isn't my cup of tea. And I'm rather busy with other things right now. But maybe the above is a good starting point?
Standby alert