[shardex]

I totally know what you mean but I intentionally designed it sparse. I figure most of these forums are way too indulgent in graphics and features that the whole point of them...the content...gets pushed to the side.

I conducted several UI studies on varying demographics and found that the majority of users prefer less graphics and features (I call them toys) as it is distracting.

I am a Flash coder/ graphic designer by trade so this is very opposite to what I love to do, but I look to successful content driven sites like Google and even Craigslist (although I still thinks it looks terrible) and see that the majority of the population just wants to see the content and not be distracted by all the toys.

Anyway, there is probably a happy medium somewhere. Like this site. I love the header. Simple, elegant and not distracting.

Thanks for the input!