I take my hat off to all who have worked so hard - for free I might remind everyone - to undertake this massive project. As in most organizations, a handful of people work very hard for the enjoyment of the vast majority and I can certainly understand that it is very hard for the ones who put in the time and effort to accept criticism of their work when the project has only been up and running a few hours. I've read some posts from moderators who are frustrated, even getting very defensive, by some of the negative comments posted in this thread.
Having said that, I'd like to remind these same dedicated members that many others are offering their opinions and evaluating the new forum as it is running at the moment, just a few hours after debut, and cannot envision any improvements at all over the old forum, which was doing the job for most people.
Many others are probably wondering why the changes were even necessary. I'm sure the reasons are well known to those of you who tackled this massive project and I'm certain the change is justified, but change is always hard and it's even harder when people don't understand the benefits it will bring about. It is obvious from reading this thread that many members, me included, didn't have a clue about the upcoming change or the reasons for it. I haven't been around here long enough to earn the right to criticize anything at all, and I wouldn't criticize the hard work of so many dedicated volunteers anyway, but I can tell you that my first impression was "what in the heck happened here?" I tried to log into the forum and couldn't.
I had to figure out that my user name was still valid when I tried to register again and by chance I figured out that I could reset the password to get back into the forum. I still don't have a clue why the new forum is better than the old one, but I trust that it is. When you have 20,000 members, it is always better to announce the upcoming changes well in advance, provide a brief explanation of how the change will benefit the forum community and what issues and problems users may experience during the transition period. If those steps were taken, I missed them. In any case, we owe our gratitude to the moderators and the few who volunteer their time for our enjoyment.
By the way, you can disregard two e-mails I sent to the website administrator asking if my user name was still valid. AND...Impact Blue look improved the look and feel of this new forum for me.
It will happen... time...