I wouldn't mind a more distinctive style - the current style seems a bit generic. Maybe you could go for a style with a little more artwork.

The problem with white text on a dark background is that it tends to be harder to read in places where there's a lot of glare on the screen.

What might work is a style where the background and such is dark, but the text boxes with forum posts and the meaty content is white with dark text. Ars Technica and Phoronix use that sort of style on their front pages (though not on their forums.)