New "feature"?
Phantom_Hoover and I just discussed it on #freespace, and we both think it's pretty distracting - it draws the eye away from the content of the post, much more than the bright colors by themselves did. Also the titles fade to the darker/lighter color, while sigs snap to it immediately, which makes it even worse.
HLP is one of the best-designed Internet forums I've been on, with its extreme emphasis on post content over anything else, and this detracts from it IMO.
(should this post be in "new theme issues"? Feel free to merge it I guess)
[EDIT] Just to clarify I see Sandvich's link to the feedback thread but it's either wrong or a link to a private forum so yeah
