Replies

This has nothing to do with "learning new tricks." The old board was elegant in its simplicity. This reminds me of all the new redesigned utility bills that were supposed to be easier to read, but actually were a maze of complexity. The basic principle of visual design is to move the eye to the most important spot on the page. Here we have competing visual images. If this were the opening page it would be okay. But if the flag and sidebar reduce the all important thread information to the middleground, it becomes tiring to stare at. If FreeRepublic wants to imitate Yahoo, AOL, etc., that is its decision, ok. But it must remember that it became wildly popular because it had the most ingenious, simple, easy-to-read format on the internet. The ironic thing is that the new set-up looks amateurish unlike the old one which was pretty slick, IMHO.