Ridge Social

I'd like some CnC on a new design for a site that my friend and I are creating. It's my first design in a while..so yeah..CnC is appreciated

http://www.imgbite.com/uploads/89475_ridgesocial.jpg

It's nice, but it looks like every other site.
Very template-like.

Gorgeous. Love the color combination and the layout is one of those comfortable layouts.

I agree.

Then again, users won't care if it looks "unoriginal".

Thanks a lot for the comments! The site is meant to be a community forum for my school, so it won't matter much on looks, IMO, but since this is the main page, most people won't spend much time on it. The forum layout will be more original-ish . I much prefer coding..but my friend is being lazy and won't get off halo 3 to do his design job.

Well I'd say you can get to the good stuff, the coding, since this looks great!

I do agree that it looks very template-like, but it's still a very nice site. Good job!

Like everyone else, I agree the design looks like one thats been done a million times. But Being a coder myself, I am more interested to see what you got behind the design. So go ahead and code it so I can critique that instead !

Here's the coded layout. No php or anything yet, just the backbone of the page :P

http://www.halotrilogy.org/social/

You coded that will, looks identical to the picture.
You code doesn't look too bloated either, a lot of <div>s in there though.

Site looks simple and clean! Everything seems to be where it belongs