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If someone voices their displeasure they are automatically a 'whiner'? Okay, fine. There are nice little labels for people who incessantly suck up, too.

Apologies if the term whiner disturbed you. Perhaps it doesn’t apply in your particular case. I simply bristle when two men who have devoted a significant portion of their finances, time and energy to developing and maintaining this site are subjected to the _____ (fill in the blank with descriptive noun of your choosing) that I am reading on this thread.

If some of you who are uncomfortable with the present format would simply take a little time to get used to the newness of it, maybe you would find that a lot of the negative comments might better have been left unsaid. (Or maybe not. There is surely room for improvement in any re-vamping, but a nanosecond after its implementation is no time to start issuing criticisms or complaints.)

I plan to private reply Jim Robinson regarding both positive and negative reactions to the change, but not until I am totally familiar with the new system.

I am not necessarily talking about you (your comments were not of the type to which I am referring), but people on this thread who have instantaneously begun complaining (some simply because their heretofore normal routine has been changed) smack of immaturity (and, in the particular case of this forum, ingratitude).

Contrary to the opinion of the majority on this thread, change can be a good thing….if one goes to the trouble of trying to comprehend the improvements made thereby.

(/end of suck up....an inappropriate term, from my perspective. But I defend your right to label it such. :)

There are many issues about which you can accuse people of whining. I don't think it's fair in this case. There are some real legitimate concerns being addressed here. I don't think most people are coming down on Jim and John, just trying to make them aware of the problems. We would be doing them an injustice to keep our thoughts to ourselves, in my opinion. Personally, I don't like it. Some of it is ok and a lot of it I can learn to live with, but there are a couple of things that are really terrible and create REAL issues for many of us, whether it be in functionality, such as many web tv users have expressed or an adverse visual reaction...and yes, this too can be very real. It just doesn't flow. The visible layout is too busy and distracting and CAN produce headaches and visual discomfort that is not conducive to readability and is also unlikely to be attractive to those new to FR.

I have put a lot of time into helping new FReepers learn their way around here. It seems that it was kind of a waste now. I feel badly about that.

My impression is that a lot of the changes were being made because a handful of people complained a lot about having to be bothered to ignore topics they weren't interested in to get to ones that they were. Now it seems that the opposite has occurred. A few people like the restricted access and limitations on how much can be found or viewed at one time. The rest of us are missing most everything because we either A. Don't know where to look for it B. Get distracted while trying to navigate or C. Find it easier to find the news somewhere else.

I for one DO appreciate the effort that Jim and John make to be accommodating and I believe that they will weigh the things that we have been addressing as well, but please don't try to reduce it to "if you don't like it you're a whiner" because that just isn't the case.