Gone weird here too.

I see it, too. I don't recall getting any kind of heads-up from Bravenet about it, but I will check their site for info. So far it seems to have the same functionality, other than looking different, except I'm not yet sure about custom icons. It would be nice if they added the ability to embed YouTube videos, and maybe made it easier to copy/paste hot URL links without having to manually create them with the html code, but...we'll see.

And now I do see another difference -- the smilies work differently. More choices, but sadly no raincoat, no Peugeot of course, and...no cigar. :bowling: .

Bravenet did an "overhaul" of all the forums that they host. I have options to change things like font and some other details of the appearance, but nothing too major that I can see.

Meanwhile, for those of us who miss the old look: You now see 3 icons, above the messages, toward the right side, basically under the "Search" button. These let you switch among 3 layouts that they call Discussion, Board and Threaded. The Board and Threaded views are pretty much as we were used to (except for the speech-balloon icon next to each message in Board view).

What I don't like in the Discussion view is the huge icon of the first letter in the poster's name. There are other places that have this, but I preferred the option for each of us to have a custom avatar, or for that matter I prefer no avatar at all instead of the big letter. I have submitted a support ticket to Bravenet, but I'm guessing this "is what it is" -- if there's an option to change avatars I will post about it.

Embedding an image in your post still works as before. The simplest method in my opinion is to create a free account on Imgur, upload your image there, then copy the "BBCode" for your image and paste that code into your message.

One more thing: Not sure yet, but it seems we may not have to do the Captcha routine every time we post, although there is still some kind of Captcha protection behind the scenes.
:spiral_note_pad:

On my phone it looks like a forced mobile site, it was the full site before. I hate them giant letter icons too.

Bravenet Support replied to tell me that they will be adding back the custom avatars before long, as part of a new feature to be called Forum Profiles. So, those who wish to be seen as something other than a capital letter will get that choice again. But I guess the big initial will still be the default way that we see others identified, who don't customize. Or as I said, you can make the icon go away by switching to Board or Thread layout. Interesting point, that the design may be to better accommodate mobile devices. :police_car:

I guess everyone is a bit stand-offish about change (in just about anything). Perhaps this just takes some getting used to.

Seems fine on my PC, the older style layout was rather dated in my opinion. I think the icons are too big at the moment and we could do with some customised avatars.