the critter forum

do the symbols on the left actually convey any meaning or is it just there for the sake of it?

If you mean those round icons, yep, they do :3c

for example, glowing circles mean there's unread post(s)

if the icon is a different color, it's used to convey which post is a sticky, an announcement or a global one (notably though announcement and global have same color) :D
so yaiiii!

as for those new images I've used for forums and subforums, all thanks goes to https://game-icons.net/ :3c I've chose red and rounded square because it seems pretty fitting so yai!