Design-me: "wow, people really do skip over top level banners now.

Now what do I use if something's important?"

The banner on this site is too skinny, and the background color is too dull. It doesn't jump out as anything important, and I skipped right over it as well.

A wider banner with more intense background color would go a long way.

I saw the banner too but wasn't sure exactly what he meant by "janky" and "updating in the open".

I thought it was going to be an example of a problematical translation

Alert boxes. Can't go wrong!

I typically close those too. The trick is to make them modal and persistent until you enter your email address.