I just turned off the left and the right side bars and switched the theme to UBB dark and it is unbelievable how much better the forum looks.

I think that UBB Central should think about a major design change to put UBB in a better light for new users that have never seen the forums before, the current set up is very bland and default UBB display needs to be changed fast.

I only have the left side bar on the forum I run. I didn't want to lose that much space with two side bars. But it is nice for new people because it shows all of the built in options they can use if they choose.

Maybe when the dust settles down a bit the new owner might want to look at a new logo and new color layout. But this is just aesthetics and there are bigger things that need to be taken care of first.

You know, the clean and simple appearance is what actually ended up catching my eye... if we go the bloat and eye candy route it'd do more harm than good..