As everyone might know by now, we have a new 'draft' banner with matrix theme, falling unix commands, blinking numbers, and more. This will be the new default theme for the forums.
We are in the process of sending final comments to our designer, please feel free to post your suggestions here.
Neo
That's a new idea having a flash file instead of just a picture.. cool! 
What jumped out at me right away was how the flash file, background and scroll bar are all just about the same shade of green, which causes everything to kind of blend together - maybe a slightly lighter shade of green in the background might help?
But what also stood out to me was the thin, crisp lines that form the borders for all the table cells (I'm referring to the html code here)... I think it adds a lot to the readability of the forums when I'm looking at a whole page of topics.. makes it easier for the eye to separate things out.
Thanks! Glad you like our idea..... I'm becoming a big 'Flash MX' fan as well, love the built in ability for flash to communicate with back-end databases, etc. Database-driven flash.....
Here are the current HEX codes for the background:
<body bgcolor="#1B635F" text="#00292D" ..... ">
The 'table heading background color' is #023D39
and
The 'category strip font color' is #9ECCCB
I tried a ligher shade of green, but it seemed 'pale'.... if you have a suggestion that you like better than #1B635F (the current background color) please post and I'll give it a try!
Neo
I just tried a few things, like replacing your code with
"<body bgColor=#227B77 text=#00292D ...">
but I agree it looks pale.
I think it might help if the links on the green background were lighter, but that might be more trouble than it's worth.. 
You'd need extra CSS:
.nav:link {
COLOR: #c7ffb9
}
.nav:visited {
COLOR: #c7ffb9
}
.nav:active {
COLOR: #c7ffb9
}
.nav:hover {
COLOR: #efe
}
and then add it to the links with a green background (for better readability):
<FONT face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size=2 color="#c7ffb9"><B><A
href="http://www.unix.com/index.php?s=" class="nav">THE UNIX FORUMS</A> .....
-------
Had to correct something I mistyped .. wow I'm a perfectionist :o
Agreed. It is hard to find the right shades of green...... (or any color).... but I think the flash colors are good and think the designer made some wise choices.
When I have more time.... (spent all night and morning on this yesterday!) I'll try your suggestion and see how it looks. Thanks.
Neo
BTW, here was a note to our designer:
Thanks. I think it looks great. I''ll post to our members to look at. A few things.....
(1) Could you try a different font for unix.com ?
(2) Can you tastfully flash and fade in/out ''Universal Internet eXchange' somewhere ?
(3) Could you think if there is any tastful movement to the arrows?
(4) Possible to put a bit of light movement around the border of the thing in the middle that provides the depth?
Great job.......!!!!!! WoW! Coming along nicely!!!!
Well, it was nice to see that flashy default theme when I typed unix.com today. The top flash banner is very good, I may say appealing and soothing to the eyes as well. Problem begings when you look down the page. Black words on a darker shade of green is very hard to read. Can be read but with eye strain. Better change it to some bright color so that contents can be read easily.
Overall, its very good. Change is always a pleasant thing.
Keep it up!
JAM
I've tried many and, since the work is no really done on the background, I find dark green (the hex code #1B635F) works the best.
Please provide the hex number of the background color you like?
Neo
Is this better for you? I changed the main background colors to another color that is in the flash banner:
#2C9889
Neo
Note to self: Also changed the text and table divider color to #021D26 (another color in the flash banner)
Changed, it back to #1B635F at Perderabo's request. Change text to #111111 (darker black). Thanks for the feedback.
I'm going back to other tasks 
Neo
Our designer added the extra animations we requested but it did not improve the already super work of art she created. So after two revisions, I decided to go back to the original. We did change the preloader.... other than that, the design of this flash banner is complete.
Thank you for all the feedback.
Neo
PS: Other versions have animated arrows and a few more features..... but the balance in the current version seems perfect.....
Hi,
The design of the new header is fine, but I think that the flash "banner" should be smaller...
It is the same width as the table, and the size changes (resizes) based on the table size.... what more can a designer do to make sure it works for everyone??
Neo
Try a dark background..... see if that is better than 'the green'.......
Neo
Well, I liked the original green better. This might not be true if I had an antique monitor.
I'm not sure what resources are required, but maybe you can please everyone. Is this possible.... Put the "green flash" back. Make this current incarnation available as, umm, "muddy flash". (Ok, maybe someone who likes it should pick a name.) And what the heck, put a few others in too.
Maybe let that designer pick one too. "Designer's Flash".
OK, thanks for the comments. I'll change it back
Neo
Note to self:
Changed table border color from #9ECCCB to #1B635F and changed category font color from #9ECCCB to #000000.
Also, changed time font color to #0055AA
Neo
nav:hover {
COLOR: #efe
}
oombera,
what is #efe ......?? Can you correct this typo (is it a typo?) so when I get a moment I can try this color scheme?
Neo
efe is just short for eeffee (very very light green)... with CSS, if you have two hex digits that are the same, like #336699 or #00CC00, you can shorten it to #369 or #0C0
Great!
Does that shorthand work for all HTML codes.... like bgcolor="000" is white ? Or only CSS?
Neo