It was very broken. what are you talking about. The database was held together with duck tape, used gum and bailing wire. The powers that be were afraid to touch the software (that was 10 years out of date) for fear it would break the message board altogether. So change had to be made.
They’re tweaking the interface and improving it as we speak and we’ll see what it is like in 2 weeks. I do not miss the 502s and 504s.
It was broken much like my car was broken when it ran out of gas. I thought the best idea was to get more gas, not buy a new car. There are many message boards using the SDMB’s former model that still work. I understand some people like the new format, popups and buttons (so many clickable things) on every page, but, hopefully, you can understand how some people do not like the change. You can fix IT issues on your message board without abandoning its fundamental format. SDMB chose to replace the format, and, of course, they can do that. But I can’t believe that was the only option and I can’t believe people are nonplussed that some people don’t like it. My continued use of this message board is not an endorsement of its current format or an argument against myself. Is there still a time limit on edits?
Have you tried this add-on? A hack to reduce whitespace and scrolling
I haven’t but was wondering what others thought of it since I’m seeing a lot of people mentioning the white space.
Only the car ran out of gas because of a hole that rusted through your gas tank, and a new gas tank was more money than you wanted to spend on a car that was very old.
Maybe at that point an electric car or hybrid might make sense.
I agree the default theme was/is(?) almost designed to piss off old-school Dopers. Based on reading the advice in other threads I switched pretty quickly to Sams theme and have been very happy since. I’ve yet to try the other custom themes, but I bet they’re even more familiar.
The remaining differences are trivial. This is MUCH less disruptive than when my favorite grocery store last rearranged their shelves. Guess what: I can find everything in that store now and if by magic they switched back to the old arrangement I’d be lost.
Try the other themes and give it a few days. You’ll be fine. Really.
Thanks. I appreciate the help! Some of the functions here don’t seem very intuitive but maybe I will get the hang of it eventually!
If it’s as simple as adding an extension, I might try it. Will look into it this evening. I don’t love that it hides the reply button but it might be worth it. Why all the giant white squares, Discourse?!
Am I the only one a little 
at the poster I’ve never heard of - who has a total of three posts (all on this new board) - showing up to whine about the new interface?
To be clear, the question was about you, not to you, but I’m sure the next mod that happens by will help you out.
Thanks for the threat. Did you have something substantive to add regarding the topic?
I’ve already replied to serious posters several times. To you, no.
Then why engage me at all, JPO?
Thanks! I’ll be interested in what you think about it. I’m not adventurous enough to try it at the moment.
I will say, though, that the whole “remove the whole quote” nonsense should be disabled, if possible. Having to go in and do a trivial edit to keep the quote is weird, tedious, unlikely to happen regularly, and forceably removes a part of the board culture
Again - the question was about you, not to you.
Gee, I wonder why. 
I don’t care who it was to or about. You feign like you don’t care, but were interested enough to investigate like Sherlock Holmes and threatened to sick mods on me. I couldn’t log in with my old username and/or password, so I created a new one on this NEW message board with a NEW format. What about that has your briefs in a twist?
I’ll miss you when you’re gone.
You wonder because you don’t know.
Do you really think the mods, having switched to a radically differently format, are going to ban me because my former username and password doesn’t work?
I see your point, but the system only removes the entire post when it’s directly below the post you’re quoting entirely. If it never allowed people to quote the entire post, it would be more of an issue, I think. You can still quote another post in its entirety even one post away. But right below the person you’re quoting in entirety seems like a waste of space. YMMV.