I like the banner, and i joined the forum xD.
The White doesn't really bother me much, it makes the banner look more icey. What i don't really like though and i find it the hardest to do, is making the banner "blend" into the website. At the moment, no offence, but it looks like just another pic stuck onto a webpage. I always have problems with this and i can never really help it.
I think a really good example of being able to fit and "blend" the banner into the page would be that of
http://mugglenet.com Although it isn't perfect and there probably are better ones out there (I thought this off the top of my head), i think the way they made it curly at the bottom gives it the "all important 1px black border around a sig" look. Why don't you try doing that? Maybe it'll look better.
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