Yes, it is the closest way to get the feeling of the old board format, probably.
I just got 2 ads. WTH? I just posted I havn’t seen any. Did I invite them in, on accident?
StG - thank you SO much for trying to help me. Next, I’ll ask you to teach my dog to sing!
So, now where do I find “user settings” to click on Simple Sam?
Too bad Simple Sam is so glaringly white. I just can’t take the super bright backgrounds. Vincent is my choice for now and it’s ok.
I’m not considering leaving and I have found replacements for most of the features I used on the old board. However, I find the entire look of this place cartoonish in comparison to the old board format. I miss the information about posters, meaning join dates, location and post counts. I miss the ‘hover’ feature.
I am sure as my navigation skills improve, I’ll find more things I like. Or maybe not. Don’t miss the 502s/504s, though.
Thank you! That’s what I was missing.
FUCK!
So I thought I had successfully “reclaimed” Dinsdale, but I now see I’m still Dinsdale1. And in the process, I’m pretty sure I’ve completely mixed up my passwords.
I really dislike being this glaringly incompetent. Suspect I should just slink away quietly. All of you - have pity on my work IT person!
Nope. Not leaving. The 10 minutes spent trying to login was well worth it. Love most it.
Gotta have the Dope…It keeps me sane (somewhat).
As a matter-of-fact, I am going to re-up my membership even though it has not expired yet. As soon as I figure out how to do that. 
Now…off to explore the new setup. This will be fun!
Oh cool! Glad you’re interested.
In the top right hand corner, hit your avatar, the one that looks like a D that’s next to your posts. Then in the drop down box, hit your username Dinsdale1 at the top. Then hit preferences in the next drop down menu. Then on the left side under account, go to interface (at the bottom of the list). At the top of that page, it will say Theme. In the drop down box, click on Sam’s Simple Theme. Scroll to the bottom of that page and hit Save Changes.
That will change your theme (skin).
I’m using Vincent, too. I like the black background. I use black on Facebook, too, and this is basically what Discourse is - Facebook. If you can deal with FB, you can deal with DC. It’s definitely not as enjoyable as it used to be, but all good things die, everything in life gets worse with age, and you just gotta adapt and try to be happy anyway.
Facebook is a terrible way of clearly disseminating information, but it’s tolerable as a way of keeping up with your community, if you have no other means to do so.
I’ve settled on the Vincent theme due to lack of glare from the white backgrounds. I still haven’t checked it out on mobile though. I’ve also found the settings for changing the background on my user card and header; this has pleased me. I think I need to redo my avatar – I’m really not pleased with the resolution now – and I’ll definitely change my user name at some point, but I have no real complaints at the moment.
I’m still getting used to not having to copy what I’ve typed before attempting to post. 
Click on your D avatar and then click on your user name. Choose “Preferences” (near the bottom of the dropdown list). Look to the left and choose “Interface”. It gives a you a number of different overlays. Unfortunately, you have to save each then look at it, then redo everything to look at the next one.
Good luck!
StG
Just noticed I am listed as Guest. I paid for Member. Hmmm…
Yes, it’s an adjustment for everyone. Yes, we would have preferred to stay where we were, except without the timeout errors. But this is what we have, and we’ll have to do the best we can.
None of us want you to leave. We’ll try our best to fix your problems. Please be patient.
They’re still working on this aspect. I say keep posting and you’ll see your title change to member after a number of posts. (I think.)
There are 8 different themes available, and which one you use can make a world of difference in how tolerable the new board is.
I recommend trying them all out. The easiest way to do this is to have your profile page open, and at least one other page open as well.
Select a theme, save changes, then refresh the other page you have open. You’ll see what the page looks like with your new theme.
Click back to the profile page, select the next theme, save, refresh the other page. Lather, rinse, repeat until you’ve tried all eight. Should take you about two minutes, once you’ve found the place on your profile page where you select a theme.
I personally like Discourse-classic, but to each his/her own. I can’t tell for sure, but I think the default is either Graceful or Light.
Dinsdale, if you look at the top of every page you will find a little looking glass icon. That is your search. If you click on it – it’s to the left of that little three line “hamburger” thing, which is right next to your avatar/icon, you will find an efficient engine that will probably find what you need.
I’m genuinely sorry you’re not having a good time here, that you’re having to see something new. Nothing is what is was 20 years ago.
If you give this up, that is bad. I hope you stick around.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Did you create a new account? Not necessary and tptb specifically said not to.
Amen.
I do like the. Vincent theme, as others have said, plus the new site is going way faster on this old iPad of mine.
Before anyone leaves in a huff (if that’s too soon, you can leave in a minute and a huff 
), they should at least stick around long enough to figure out what adjustments can be made to improve the way they experience the new board.
I’ve mentioned the themes, but another thing that’s already made me more comfortable here is to set my SDMB bookmark to Straight Dope Message Board - Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.. It’s a page that looks pretty much like the old Main page, and from there I can decide which forum I feel like annoying the denizens of today. 
The new site has the little magnifying glass that signifies “Search”, the little 3 line icon that indicates a larger menu, and your avatar icon, which typically is where you find anything relating to yourself. And the main logo links back to the main page.
This navigation scheme is not in the least bit new. At all. It’s been pretty common for the last decade or so for both PC and mobile applications.
For me (I’m 47, FWIW), this is great. Better than the old site even, as once I get past the few minor things that are different, there are a lot of NICE improvements- the little scroll bar on the right side, for example is super-cool. The highlight+quote functionality is another. Just the non-paginated stuff is a huge improvement as well. So is the red line showing where your last read message was in a thread.
Maybe my professional career in IT and having to use a lot of different apps over the course of it has made me better at figuring this stuff out or (more likely) being able to quickly pick up the commonalities between them, but I don’t know. It just seems like there’s a pretty large contingent of people out in the world that get something they like, and then expect it to never change, and get angry when it does instead of just learning the new thing and seeing how it can be even better.