I can just tell you what I have observed - that everyone has their own opinion of what looks good. I have had people give me their sites as example of what looks good and I thought they looked like crap. The guy who designed my logo is highly visual - and he thinks the site looks ok, but he absolutely freaked out that the "join" button is red. "join means stop" he said. I don't think the base template for Dolphin looks all that bad, though I know some people think the template see more is the only thing that is important and do that first. I have looked at a few of your sites, and while I like some of your content, frankly they don't appeal to me visually at all.

I don't particularly think the appearance of that site but recognize that my tastes may be different and some people may like it. I don't think that is the factor though - I think if my site looked exactly like that I would still have the problem. Let's leave me out of it though. Show me a Dolphin site that is beautiful and successful - or more specifically successful because it is beautiful. I do thing ascetics are important - but so is solid functionality, and if that is missing no amount of "beauty" will save you.

As I said on Zarcon's comment, right now I am actively engaged in discussions there - and have already made new contacts, the alerts are properly designed and it is easy to know what people are doing - even though it is a crude site that was just thrown up a week ago.