I can only apologise in advance for those that don't like the new style, unfortunately for you, this has to happen so it is going to.
I totally understand the "if it aint broke dont fix it" rule. And it's one I stick to, I have to say. But the only reason we're the number one forum is the fact that we stayed ahead of the game, there's always been other forums about and we always need to make sure we're working towards the better things.
I like the old style from a user point of view as I'm used to it. Though let it be known that it took me a year to get used to an old forum I was on before I made my own first one all them years ago (which was in 1996!). Though I got used to the new one within a few hours, even at administration level.
And I always refer to the main reason I want to make the change member-wise. Many new member just take ages getting used to this software. I'd have to change just as much manually to this forum to make it much easier to use (such as more obvious "New Thread" buttons and so on) than simply upgrading the place.
I deal with umpteen emails asking how to register. And 'can you send me a password please?' when they've hit the 'send email' button to us from the actual Lost Password page which emails your password to you if you stick in your email address and hit go. It's actually more labour intensive to send an email, yet they seem to be able to do that easier!
And I deal with even more PM's from people saying "I've replied to posts, but I can't find how to ask a new one" - The reason for that is the Quick Reply box is very obvious - yet the "Post New Thread" button is in the forum category and not in threads - yet the whole forum in this version is geared towards NOT browsing through forum categories and simply hitting search buttons or 'new posts' (or Today's Posts for those that got used to that before we changed it).
Though the new forum software has those features. It's more obvious that when you're in a thread, that the thread is actually contained within a category. And people DO click back and find the even more obvious than normal "New Thread" button. Which even changes colour when you mouse goes over it!
You've even said yourself that you've been on forums making the change. Imagine if we were the last and it was us that started to have the minor style and people couldn't work our forum even more?!
A good forum isn't online for a few years, it's online for life. And it needs to keep in the game, if not be ahead of it. It's time guys, it's been on the cards for years! And it's been tested, we've got all the mods and extra we need created in the new version, and we've already done 50% of our forums in total, 75% of our construction ones. Only three more to go!
I hope you all stay with us, but I know we will have many more threads and posts to read for those that will stick with us, so it's a good thing for the future of the forum in general.
--- I also notice that the votes two weeks ago, 1:8 in favour of keeping the forum as it is, is now 8:9, nearly equal.
Let's see the poll in a month "do you NOW prefer the new design?" lol