I’ve been a long time user of the forums, and I used to at least read many of the top threads, almost daily.
I’m very progressive when it comes to technology, UI, programming, but find the new design rather jarring, and find myself much less willing to visit Slowtwitch forums since the update.
I think one of the biggest issues should be easy to solve— font weights and sizing and placement of thumbnails and graphics.
Why do I need to see large circles with some initials when browsing the latest posts? It forces topic title and other relevant information to be smaller and provides nothing of value. Additionally, There is just a lot of white space.
For a decent example, I’d suggest visiting old.reddit.com or even the new site on mobile… not to copy-paste their design, but just note how the typesetting and thumbnails affect the user experience.