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Meh,
A lot of knee jerk reactions in the thread which is sad. One purpose of setting a dark (no not a flashing GIF as lisi slippery-sloped me into earlier) is to give the page more of a "piece of paper" feeling. With a darker background, a crazy wide monitor the site focuses the user on the contents of the page, and on a narrower monitor it will just barely show up, or not at all.
Personally I don't see a problem; I asked for opinions and got them, a wide range of them but all favorable towards the new design. Now we're just hashing out how best to handle a > 2000 pixel corner case.
I wasn't fully paying attention in my last couple of replies (long day here), so sorry for swinging one direction and then another so suddenly.
About a year ago I developed a queryable database for biologists, and I used this method, a fixed width, and a clear 'page' to it. I think it looks good, is extremely functional, and isn't full any modern design
Hey, that page looks somewhat familiar! I don't know if a similar visual "de-accentuation" would help or hinder the current site though; I am leaning toward the latter but not sure.
In any case I think the more pressing concern is fixing the news article segmentation; it could use some work. This is best done on the dev site so as not to disturb production until the design is finalized.
Tim