I like the new theme. Can’t say I find it too white/bright. Better without the sticky menu which takes up space and the navigation options it offers aren’t useful on a blog. I agree about the orange links, blue would be better.
The main improvement is threaded comments. I reckon it’s going to put Hababkuk out of business. Next time one of those bickering sessions breaks out, it won’t be spread over the entire thread, it’ll be confined to the comments of those who are daft enough to encourage him. It’ll be harder for him to disrupt and easier for us to scroll past.
Just one suggestion. If we want to reply to Craig’s post (rather than replying to another comment), we have to make our way to the top of the page. Using the *Home* key still requires us to scroll back down to the comment field. A link below the lowermost comment on each page to an anchor below Craig’s post would be useful.