Is there any reason for Zorin to utilize nearly a full page for their forum's landing page? I'm probably sounding bitter here, but I don't come here to see a whoppin' big colorful panel with ginormous text in the panel that eats up at least the same amount of space as six separate topic lines.
I realize it's probably part of their branding effort but wow... sometimes less is more.
Just IMO.
Maybe to promote the use of the search functionality? That has been the bane of many webmasters for decades: new comers who keep asking the same questions over and over, which can be tasking for them.
It could also be that they want to make it obvious that this is a community forum, and not official support from the developers. This is also another point that comes up every now and then.
To be perfectly clear, I'm not suggesting that you are doing any of these things 
In fact, I would welcome a change in that regard to make it a little less prominent, but it's not something that bothers me that much.
If you are using the uBlock Origin extension, you can create a cosmetic filter to remove it entirely.
I'm only going back to my earlier days in web development and design, when a lot of newspaper cliches and phrases were related to web pages.
There's something called 'The Fold'. Something else known as "Above The Fold".
Newspapers were always folded, at least in half, on and around all newspaper retailers. The title page (front page) thereby could only use the top half of the front page to pull a reader's interest, thereby increasing the odds of a sale.
On websites, especially the 'landing page' of a section, the same thoughts and theories held true, at least it used to hold true.
The most "expensive" space on any website's main page, or section pages, is "above the fold" - or in computer terms, the first full screen area you see without having to do any scrolling or paging.
The reason it 'bothers' me has to do with the ease of use. Every single time you land on the page, in order to see what you want, normally the reason you came to the forum, you have to manipulate the page just to start viewing it.
IMO this translates into a potential loss of consumer interest as it subconsciously transmits any number of things, but one might be 'we're here to waste your time with bad design.'
Consumers are driven by the most minute details. The landing page for the forum represents far more than just the forum. It represents the Zorin image, the design, the entire enchilada.
Which is why I indeed prefaced my post by saying I probably sounded bitter, but many an electron dies every time I land here to sign in. All electrons want their existence to be meaningful. 