Another insightful post.

It's hard for those who got used to the old format to realize how unique it was among forum architectures.

There was a clear tree structure that made it obvious who originated posts, and who was replying to what.

The color changes (an artifact of browser history structure and the forums URL-style connection system) make it instantly visible what you had read and what was new.

This made back-and-forth debate easier, although maybe that's just a plus for those of us who like the smell of the arena.

The new architecture does have some virtues:

URL link language is simpler, except for picture links.

Dude, there's a SEARCH FUNCTION. That doesn't exactly suck. Be careful not to invoke it while you're typing a post, though. Everything you did will be gone when you come back.

There are more tools, but I don't use them much.

You can't "lurk." Not sure if that's a bug or a feature.