[snopercod]

Ahhhhh... two examples of the "New Free Republic" are heard from. Why don't you two newbies chill out?

If you had bothered to do a little searching, you would have discovered that so-far, there isn't a thread anywhere on the forum to discuss these new changes. (Well, if there is one, I can't find it.)

Not having been around long enough to remember the several previous manifestations of this forum, you might not realize what has been lost.

For instance, the balkanization of the forum concerns me greatly. (Yeah, I know you both are running to dictionary.com right now...)

[snopercod]

OK, I found the forum discussion thread: This is Awful!

I was wrong, but you two are still out of line.

[Sir Gawain]

Why don't you two newbies chill out?

Hey, I'm a newbie! Cool!

[Clara Lou]

Are you sure you meant to address post #38 to me? Because, if you were, you don't make much sense.

[mercy]

Hey, I'm still ticked off the threads don't show the number of VIEWS any more.

[Libertina]

For instance, the balkanization of the forum concerns me greatly
While you incorrectly labeled Sir Gawain a newbie, you are right on target about the "Balkanization" of the forum. Rather than a big US, the FR community, we now choose even which TYPE of news to "subscribe" to... hmmm, do I want breaking, state, front page, foreign, local? It seems that the word news should cover it all. Although the new page format looks pretty, it is less functional. Plus, what any design teacher would say is that the home page of FR and the post pages match, while the new page design even uses different fonts. The blue color/left sidebar seems as if a page from a different web site has just popped up.

[justshe]

This thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/656273/is up to 903 comments on the changes.