After looking on banner for some time I think I have a few notes for banners in general.
1. The text should be the most prominent part of the image and be the first thing you see when you look at the image. I caught myself looking for the text a few times with the current banner.
2. The banner should not be too complicated, with a lot of minor details and everything, but it needs to look interesting enough to catch the eye.
3. Removing the black border is a matter of seconds and can be done at any time, so don't worry about it. Another thing to note is that the banner is not centered. There is more black space on it's left than on the right (showed with green). There is also no right border on the content below the banner (showed with red). Looks pretty shite
I want to ask admins to remove the 1px white border on the site content as it only limits design options, doesn't add anything to presentation and even has a negative impact on it.
It's probably just me but the banner put me in mind of the painting 'The Ambassadors' by Hans Holbein which hangs in the National Gallery
The Skull in the foreground can only be properly viewed by standing on the extreme right of the painting. Its an early experiment in forced perspective
Sorry I'll get me coat (and go to an Art Gallery to muse on my own )
This is (yet another) great idea...
I do think we should keep something in place for the actual banner so the page doesn't appear broken though...
A frosted glass effect or maybe a reverse HUD theme would allow you to keep your idea without breaking the flow of the overall page...