Having lived through 3 of these upgrades on different sites I am desensitized to the changes. Complaints are typical, and most of them will be worked out in due time, while the rest can be fixed with Stylus. The majority of the users get used to the changes, and new features more than make up for it. I'd love to see a threadmarking addon implemented for LPs.
I can see some concerns -- like the color difference between the post and the avatar, and the posts feeling disjointed because of the grey background between them -- have already been addressed.
I like the compact design (it's a bit
too compact -- some of the old signatures no longer fit), and I like that the buttons no longer take a third of each post. You can't believe how many times I gave accidental ratings.
New quotes seem a bit too wide in comparison, but then that might just be me.
The background needs to come back. A better defined border between the post area and the background wouldn't be amiss (that black outline on the old screenshots). Borders really make a difference in perception.
Could probably replace the small buffer area with dark blue to get back that blue feel of the old site.
Also, unifying all the thread buttons (page navigation, Watch/Jump to New) into a single bar could help combat the disjointed feel and make it look more cohesive.
Oh, and the width of the posting area needs to adjust to the screen size, but I am sure that has been talked about in the neighbouring thread for 5 pages -- that one is really hard to miss.
The forums page (the one with the list of threads) could use some love (some more personality), starting with the icons. It's probably not
too complex to get it to look like the old one?
Edit: the rating icons are a bit 'meh'. The counter shouldn't have a gray color, and perhaps the background could be transparent? I'll wait to see what the site looks in a week and then make a css script to fix that if it isn't.
Xenforo 2.0 has a functionality where clicking on a rating opens a list of people who gave you that rating. Can we have a button to view all ratings and who gave then all at once?