in response to your criticism, I made a better way of displaying the date of chatbox posts, and you will find that your full name fits perfectly now. It will actually give you a different font-size depending on how long your name it. And I tested it with all-caps characters to make sure it will always work.

http://www.interguild.org/testing/levels
Tell me if you think getting around the database is confusing or something.

edit: you still can't view levels, though.

It took me a few seconds to find the search/sort options.

yeah, maybe that needs to be made more clear somehow.

At first I thought it was the sidebar and glanced over it, but now that I returned to the front page I see that it actually is the sidebar.

yeah, the idea of the new layout is to present it as if the level database is the site, and it just happens to have all this other stuff (videos, guides, forums) around it.

So maybe it wouldn't be so confusing if you were seeing the site for the first time?

that layout really is bad imo. sorry; but we'll have to have an option to switch layouts, i think.

wait, what about it? the colors or the setup?

colors.

well, I'm planning on releasing a dark color scheme with it, and whichever looks best will become the default. The reason I started with the light is because it generally looks more professional.

But what do you think of the organization and ease-of-use?

Maybe you can use drop-down menus in the sidebar. I feel the most of the stuff there doesn't deserve to be in the sidebar.

drop down menus? At first I thought you meant the drop down lists that you use in forms, but I'm assuming you mean lists of links that open up when you roll over them or something?

And which links don't need to be there? Probably the links to series... And the Other Links

actually, I'm gonna experiment with some of this stuff. Maybe I shouldn't rely on the sidebar to help people get around the level database...

Basically all of the "Hardest Levels", "Levels with Awards", "Largest Levels" stuff shouldn't be there. A sidebar is for links you use all the time. I click on "Hardest Levels" once every few months at best. The only link there I expect to use the Random Level link.

It would probably look much more professional if you use such a feature that Neopets uses on their top links. Would make the side bar much less clustered once you also put up some more links there.

The colours are bad. Change quickly, because looking professional is the least of our worries, considering our targeting group.

The sidebar looks odd. I really dislike the fact that the member list is put in "Other Links", and also the database links - Largest Series, come on, when did you last use that one? You only need a few links there, namely Newest Levels, Top Rated Levels, Random Level and a link to the main page of the database, or something. Also when hovering the mouse over "Browse a Game", the menu shouldn't drop down from Games, it looks odd if you've scrolled down a bit.

Do not forget that navigating around the actual community matters a lot. The topbar, while containing loads of useful links, is rarely used by me, at least with the current layout. The sidebar on the other hand looks very empty with only database info in it. It makes the site look just like you wanted it - a site with a database, that happens to have a community, but where the main focus isn't put on the forum, rather on the levels directory. At least split the attention. Listing forum stuff under "Other Links" looks really sloppy.
I'd also like to remind you that this site would live on without the directory, but it wouldn't without a functional forum.

Finally, try to add a different shade of white/grey at every other line of levels, just like in the current layout - it pleases the eyes.

Also, the topbar should go below the logo and ad.

thanks for the suggestions. I'll try experimenting with some of that stuff right now.

I've got some pretty crazy ideas on how to improve the layout. It's basically a re-designing, and I'm starting it with the dark color scheme this time.

this is unrelated, but if you login in the new layout, you will be automatically logged out when the browser closes, but if you don't like that, you can check the new "remember me" text next to the submit button. But then again, you guys probably never even see the login form, but at least this is closer to what most sites are like.

http://www.interguild.org/testing/newlayout.php
I've been passing around this link for a few days in the chatbox, but here's the new draft of the new layout. Everything above "The Interguild Level Database Home Page" has been fine tuned to some extent, and everything under that is where the pages will go. Also note how there is no sidebar.

So yeah, what do you think so far? Ignore broken links and stuff, and even though I've worked very little on what links will go under the drop-down menus, feel free to make suggestions anyway.

okaahaahaaay, this looks good!

The search bar doesn't fit in (in Firefox and IE the bar and the Go button aren't on the same height) and the different background colour of the posters in the chatbox should be removed.

yeah that Go button thing is so annoying because I just can't seem to fix it. Maybe instead of just leaving it I should try to think of some creative ways around that...

It turns out that the chatbox posts look pretty good without that background. The whole concept seems to work best on lighter layouts, I guess. I was thinking that I would have to add some kind of divider or something between the post and author, but it looks okay with just whitespace

The different font you are currently using is good enough for the chatbox.

I approve of the topbar and its colors.