After reading the discussions here the last months, I got a feeling there's been too much focus on design, and not so much on usability and functionality. Usability will be paramount on this site (as almost everywhere else). I suggest we go with a "boring", Googlish style:
Horizontal menus, which are easy to style and read.
Black on white, with no formatting at all for links, making it very easy to recognize them at a glance.
Content centered horizontally with no width restrictions, making it
easier for the user to decide on wide or narrow text without messing up
the layout.
Being a web developer, I know how easy it is to get carried away with two-column div layouts instead of working on the database schema. But I would very much like to see a usable (even ugly / boring), fast, working site before seeing any more design variants. How about you?