[quote quote=988]Is there some functionality you feel is missing? Please let me know. My goal here is simplicity. I find most forum software to be bloated. I want fast, simple conversations. Profile enhancements aside is there core functionality missing?[/quote]

I hope you know me well enough by now to know that I mean no offence when I say it’s not so much a matter of core functionality, as it is a matter of general “bleh”.

It’s said that a stairwell whose steps are “off” by just a few millimetres here and there is almost useless to people trying to use it. That can be analogously true of websites as well. If I can speak frankly, for the first time ever in talking with Bakermedia veterans (I only registered in 2003), I’m left with the feeling that I’ve just entered a post in the “Comments” section of a baking enthusiasts’ web-page.

I don’t know what it is – I think it’s a lot of little things – like, no-one at a glance can can see my join date, or how many posts I’ve made, or my last activity, stuff like that. At a glance I’m indistinguishable from someone who joined yesterday.

Everything on the forum is in bright, light colours. It’s like there’s no intimacy or atmosphere. Imagine chatting with a friend, or watching a film, with every single light source in the room switched on; it would affect the experience. It would be oppressive, the glare would be off-putting. Why? Christ knows, it just would.

The information density on the site doesn’t seem to be very high, either, meaning I have to scroll a lot to follow the gist of a thread, or even an individual post. The avatar on display also seems too small, like it’s an after-thought, and not a pivotal part of our self-presentation.

You said that you find most forum software to be bloated, and you want fast, simple conversations. Great! But the “bloated” side of forum software was something that was completely invisible to schlubs like me, who just benefited from enjoying using the end result. And I don’t notice any increase in how fast or how simple discussions are in this new format.

Basically, there’s something that the old forum software used to to deliver and provide that this new format doesn’t seem to support. Even though you know I’m willing and eager to throw stuff out there with chop wars, welcoming behaviour, and topical discussions (and support the community in other ways), something doesn’t quite “ring” about this new format, and I was hoping that you would tell ME what the cause of it was.