On [link] , if you made the upper half yourself, then I bet you could do a better job on the rest (where the ripple effect is). Besides that, it's good.
On [link] , the banner should spread across, instead of that portion of it.
It has a nice compact design, the forum is allot differnt then the site. take all words and text off, and it you wouldnt be able to tell it is associated with the index.