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I have to agree. The background is fine, but the blue link text on grey and black is almost impossible for me to read, it's a very poor choice of colour combinations.
Also the blue background blending into the header image the way it does makes it looked very blurred and messy. if the header image started blurring from below the link bar (where it has the forum home, profile, messages, my thread links) and was slightly less blended it would look much better, there's just too much blank space in the background.
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