I just put the 'Allegro.cc Banner Network' script to my page and now i'm in the middle of creating a banner for my own page to add to the network:
1:
http://homepages.compuserve.de/DennisTapier/allegroforum/bannerbg.png
2:
http://homepages.compuserve.de/DennisTapier/allegroforum/bannerbg2.png

Which one do you think is better? (I personally like #2 more.)
Second question is embedded in second image.
(btw, the backdrop was created with dcgg(see my sig). dcgg file is attached.)

The second looks good.
I would put the contents of your website.

Either:
" Games - Music - Applications "
or:
" Project A - Project B - Project C "

I find that the banners which advertise a specific project are more likely to get my attention and make me click them. You could make a banner specifically for FSA.

Use both of those and make it so that it changes the image by random (They look pretty nice, btw, only if you could make the black text more visible and maybe give it a white border or something)

http://www.allegro.cc/go/http://homepages.compuserve.de/DennisTapier/allegroforum/banner01.png
Makes me want to click the version on this page...

You can't add two banners to the allegro banner network or did i miss something? I'll see what i can do about the text visibility.

Maybe i'll go with number 4 then(the one with DCGG on it, because it is the more recent project).

I bet some german soccer fan could get upset about it, but not me, i could not care less.;)

Maybe i should use both banners, one for each odd month and the other for each even one... hm...

EDIT:
NyanKoneko: You posted while i was writing and when i got the 'give credit' option, i credited everyone, assuming that your post was something on topic and useful, without having read it.;D
Btw, your banner has the wrong dimensions to be usable by the allegro.cc banner network.;)

OK, I was just sharing above.

I'll give some helpful advice.

First of all, keep things simple and organized. Secondly, add a border to the banner.

- EDIT -
To me, there's just too much going on in the banner. I'll start working on something...

Here's my first idea. I added the gimp version with all the separate layers so you can add / change whatever.

{"name":"basic2.png","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/9\/e\/9e0bc40dffed14e27e31ca4b5025cf2a.png","w":468,"h":60,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/9\/e\/9e0bc40dffed14e27e31ca4b5025cf2a"}

Thanks for the effort but i am sorry to tell you that i do not like it.
But there is a good thing about it: I like the 'scanline' effect and incorporated that into my changes.:)

With the 'scanline'effect, the sprites are now put back a little. I also made them visible only 75% so they even less distract the eyes from the text, which imho makes the whole banner appear much less cluttered now.
For a border, i added the infamous button effect(I know, it might be a little overused these days, but still i think it fits this banner well. I had tested a plain colored border in every possible color, but that always looked boring.)

So here are the final versions of both banners:
5:
http://homepages.compuserve.de/DennisTapier/allegroforum/banner03.png
6:
http://homepages.compuserve.de/DennisTapier/allegroforum/banner04.png
(they appear a little dark here, because the forums bg color is so bright)

Seconded. If I really had to pick one, I'd take the first one (in the op) but take the URL from the second one - but if I had a free choice, I wouldn't pick any of them.

Yes there must be. I know that the background image and the small mini-thumbnail images are from your gradient generator. People who sees the image won't though, they will just think that you just have discovered gradients and WordArt (for the text).

It's not WordArt and i don't care if anyone thinks that way about the gradients.8-)

No, please don't. It would be a waste of your time, because i already made my decision.

I really like my final versions and i would not use one of them, if i did not like it.

Thanks again to everybody for your opinions and comments.:)

Right but so far, there are only a few posters in this thread, who said they do not like it. So i can not assume that everybody thinks that way.

And I understand how you feel about criticism (even when it's constructive to the max).