For starters, that header is simply too large. The entire header area of a website should never be more than 250px high, and even that's pushing it. Also, having the ads above the banner makes it look worse in this case.

I really do not like that menu text. Bevel/emboss can produce good effects, but it's really hard to pull off. I'd recommend avoiding that setting entirely. I'd also suggest using bolded uppercase text that's a little smaller instead of large, lowercase text. As for the positioning, I've never been a fan of text that's above the banner (with a few exceptions). I'd recommend tossing it at the bottom. Alternatively, you could move the title text to the left and put the menu text to the right. That's pretty hard to pull off though.

The gradient in the background is too strong. Something to remember: the best gradients are the ones you can't immediately see. If you're going to use a gradient, it needs to blend in more. A gradient from blue to black is too strong. A gradient from light blue to medium blue or dark blue to almost-black blue, however, would look a lot better. The tone of the gradient depends on the look you're trying to go for.

As for the content, it's overall too dark. You managed to keep the tone of all the dark areas pretty consistent, so it's not hard on the eyes. I still feel that it's too dark though. As a result, the text color for staff usernames is way too bright. Either the brightness needs to brought up for the rest of the text or brought down for just the staff colors.

The design has plenty of potential. It just needs some work, namely with the header and overall brightness. Oh, and as one final note, I've never really liked the ProBoards news fader. I'd look into an alternate method for displaying important site info.