Thanks
@Isaac. Glad you like the look of it here. I just popped over to UtterAccess and see they have now made the switchover. The previous designed looked dated, a bit like the vBulletin forum here looked rather dated before the switchover. However, I am not a fan of their new look. I think I preferred the old. While it looks a little more modern, it just looks too bland for me and I understand what you mean by the text being too light.
Prior to their new version, I was a little nervous. What if it looks much better than what we got over here at AWF? I am not worried anymore. What is of bigger concern is how the mighty Google will treat forums such as this one and UA in the future. How will the algo rank our posts? It is a common enemy (and benefactor) that both sites face.
To be objective, I think you can split the site into Content, Form and Functionality. Content on UA is good, Form is (IMHO) not so good, and Functionality will always fall short of a regularly updated forum software. I believe that they went a proprietary route. This can help you customise, but you just cannot compete Functionality-wise with a team of developers and plugin creators that a commercial software offers.
I am curious on the objective opinions (or subjective!) of those who frequent the UA site. Is the new design what you thought it would be? Better? Worse? Regular users may have different views to those who are taking a casual look, like myself.