Thank you both for your thoughts. I am not discounting your input at all as I am a big advocate of a clean design. However, I see many boards using the simple board design and experiencing good participation. In my opinion this site
http://boards.cruisecritic.com/ has a design inferior to mine (overall) although they do have a big header and look at the participation of the board - unbelievable.
I realize you both are looking at this through the eyes of a designer and I do indeed appreciate it. Looking for all the help I can get,