I can has feedback – take 2

You guys are fantastic!

I got so much great feedback from my last post – which led to a lot of changes.

Click to embiggen

Overall the major changes were:

• dulled the colours a bit and increased the hint of grunge-style to reduce the children’s-site vibe.
• added a cross to drive home the whole xian thing
• added an ad/feature slider to the top to allow for the inclusion of more colours and pictures of real people (unfortunately there are no pictures of ‘real people’ yet from the community, so I’m trying to keep the stock-photos to a minimum – but they can be added here later)
• removed the badges from the sidebar (and adding them to the slider)
• separated the news & events to eliminate important ones being buried
• increased the padding/spacing in the main text
• increased the size/shadow of the headers to make them stand out more

Some things I’m still unsure about:

• the colour of the sidebar – some people mentioned it doesn’t feel quite right. I agree, but I can’t seem to find anything better – suggestions?
• social media badges – style/size/position?
• visual balance – especially in the header area
• the right sidebar in general
• anything else?

Thank you so much for your feedback – I think it’s looking better already. And I’m learning a lot in the process

Just a quick FYI – the comments are broken on here temporarily. I still get them but they aren’t displaying right so I’m getting them and I appreciate them but until I fix it, I can’t reply directly. But since most people are letting me know their thoughts on Twitter anyway, hopefully it doesn’t matter too much for now (hint: I’m easier to find on Twitter anyway)