Meanwhile,
Art Andrews... Lump me in with those who miss the old look and easier-on-the-eyes intensity, as well as those who primarily or exclusively use the desktop site. I'm not exactly a Luddite, but I
do believe in the right tool for the right job, and recognize that while you can make something that does everything, it probably won't do everything
well. It is far more efficient, for instance, to have a truck for hauling and a small car for errands in town than to have a huge SUV with which you try to do everything.
I have a flip phone and a tablet. I hate the way smartphones feel if held to the head phone-style, and I don't always have an earpiece handy to take calls
that way. I can text faster, and without looking/by feel, on that thing, too. The tablet is an 8-inch class Android one that I treat more like a mini-laptop (even have a case with Bluetooth keyboard for when I'm traveling). So "mobile layout" is utterly useless to me and will always be. And on my
actual laptop, I use Chrome these days, so can't darken it the way Firefox users can.
I get your point about the content being more important than the decor... But if your favorite neighborhood pub remodeled to all white paneling, stainless steel trim, and bright, uniform lighting -- like an Apple store... I don't know about you, but I'd probably stop going. You referenced the bland universality of Amazon and Facebook. But I don't hang out on those. I go there for specific things and then leave. I'll leave Facebook and Reddit open in their tabs, but don't
hang out on them. The RPF
had been what I tended to leave up in front. My virtual watering hole. I know things are still in process, but I wanted to give my first take early.
Regardless, this will be the year I finally upgrade to Premium. Not so much because of the ads, but so I can post things for sale. But, from what I see, that will overwrite my non-Premium membership status. Both might be nice. Likewise (pun), I am one of those also waiting for all my stats to port over. I trust the post count, but should have more than a couple likes -- those getting sorted will bump my trophy points substantially, though probably not to Senior Member yet. Given the especially visual nature of a lot of the work on here, might I suggest a higher user cap for total image storage? I like the idea of on-board hosting and it sounds like older issues with that are getting sorted.