I Need Advice on Best Mods and Themes

Hello there,

I am in the process of setting up a community forum using Simple Machines Forum (SMF) and wanted to reach out for some advice from the experts here. I have been exploring different mods and themes; but I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the available options. I am hoping to get recommendations that will help me create a user friendly; engaging; and secure environment for my members.

The forum will cater to a mix of tech enthusiasts and hobbyists; so I am looking for a clean; modern design with an easy to navigate interface.
I want to encourage community engagement; so any mods that improve user interaction would be helpful.

Security is a top priority; as I want to ensure a safe environment for all users. Any advice on mods to boost security; prevent spam; or enhance user authentication would be greatly appreciated.

Also; I have gone through this post; https://www.smfsimple.com/index.php?uipath=11064.0 which definitely helped me out a lot.

I would like to know if there are any best practices I should follow for maintaining an SMF forum in the long run. For example; how often should I update mods and themes to avoid compatibility issues with SMF updates? Should I avoid certain mods because they might slow down the forum?

Thanks in advance for your help and assistance.