Slashdot has finally announced the winner of their CSS redesign contest. The new look is definitely an improvement.

Overall, the design is just the same old Slashdot with a bit of dusting and desperately needed graphic overhaul. It’s only a wonder that the geekiest of sites manages to get away with such an ugly design for this long. The dark gradients in the header and footer are much more appealing than Slashdot’s solid black background. The new tagline next to the logo is very professional and adds a nice touch.

It was a good decision to go with a design that doesn’t lose Slashdot’s flavor and originality. The logo and icons are tacky, but it wouldn’t be Slashdot with out them.

My only question about the redesign is the sliding menus. You are obviously going to run into compatibility problems any time you use javascript like that, but are they really necessary? Perhaps something new and fun is what they’re going for.