Suggestions (not comments) needed on forum design

[Ringr]

Hey everyone,

I know my forum skin is far from perfect, so please give me some good suggestions on how it can be better.

I am begging you guys on how this thing can be made better!
If you are a Photoshop "expert" perhaps you could take a screenshot of my forum and maybe swap colors and whatnot to give me ideas.

I need suggestions on how I can make this 200 times better.

Thank you,
-Andy

[StudioWorks]

Well, if you want my opinion.. it's too dark. Here's a suggestion for ya : lighten it up a bit.

- SW

[abdulmueid]

It looks nice on my monitor.
One suggestion, if possible, give the tables (categories, threads) box a rounded edge. Will give it a more halflife look

[GeneCosta]

The "Welcome" box is messed up for me. I would like it if the header image took up the entire page width too. By the way I'm using IE.

http://img305.imageshack.us/img305/7457/54dg.jpg
Screen Cap

[Ringr]

@SW: Thanks , is there any part in specific you would recommend be made lighter, or just the whole thing?
@abdulmueid: Thanks, I will do that! (add the rounded corners)
@GeneCosta: Yeah, in IE it's messed up, I have no idea how to fix that - I've asked everywhere and everyone but no one knows how to fix it or why, so I guess I'll have to unfortunately leave it like that.

[abdulmueid]

The top header looks ok in IE here. It is centered. Just the box with rounded corners after the header has those lines. I think you can open the rounded-corner image in a graphics editor and increase the size vertically and replace with the original ones. Might work.

P.S. Backup old files incase it messes it up more.

[Ringr]

Hey Abdul,

Thanks, I'll give that a try!
I've tried everything else so far, so hopefully that might work.
There's been so many CSS errors with IE, I don't know why. IE sucks I guess.

Anyone else?

Thanks,
-Andy

[worldstar]

Change the black background to something like blue!

[abdulmueid]

I think black background suits this site.

[ammo]

Lighten it up a little thats all i can really say

[Ringr]

I tried to give it a bit more light by lightening up the category/forum area by changing some backgrounds a bit and adding a rounded-yet-squarish table border around it.
Making the whole thing "lighter" is nearly impossible, that would mean changing tens of images, and almost every CSS value in there.

There's still something about it though that I don't like... Hmmm...

[Ringr]

Okay, I have majorly updated the skin since last time.

Comments? Suggestions?

If you want to see the UCP in action, login as "demo" with the password "demo".

Thanks,
-Andy

Hope to hear from you guys!

[abdulmueid]

WAY better... Suits my taste. Nothing I can think of right now.

I guess I would register

[Ringr]

Thanks for the kind words Abdul.
And for registering, maybe I'll see you around there sometime?

[abdulmueid]

I am not much onto half-life but I love playing Counter-Strike on a LAN... It's alot of fun.

[Rayzn]

I think everything fine. Maybe just spice up the banner. It's a little boring.

[Ringr]

Thanks Rayzn!

[Niek]

I like it , nothing should be changed.
it's perfect

[samuelocean]

It looks good on mine (IE)

I think the login should be at the top and the top banner is a bit strange in that it doesn't match the rest of your page.

Other than that, it's good

[samkool]

The colours are good .. there are two CALENDER button in the header (top-right) .. Remove one of em

[monaco]

Some of the grey text on black background is hard to read. I'd suggest lightening the text up just a bit.