[Harry K.]

wow, looks great

IMO an empty space smack in the middle looks kinda bad. Definitely go with the other alternative. It looks so much cozier and more streamlined.
I hope you'll give us some more color on the footer region. I can't wait to see what you come up with. I also kinda wanna know what you plan to do with that slide-in menu you have on the upper left corner.

Definitely one of the most promising material design themes out there. I look forward to using the finished product.

I agree the footer needs some colour work.
Other than that, the alternative looks better... but I think you need to do something so that they 'stand out' as subforums more because I feel like some end users might not notice that they are there.
Looks excellent overall though

Thank you guys so much for the feedback, seems like your both in the same sorta spot as me. I'll see what I can do to make them stand out a little more. The footer has been completely untouched apart from the few links I added, still waiting for that idea to pop.
@E2S: See here, covers hamburger menu, user menu and activity feed. terrible quality but it shows it.