Hi Keith,
Good to see you back! Sure hope you won't be a stranger from now on.
Well, count your blessings that you missed the initial rollout of the new site, because it wasn't without its hiccups for sure! The visibility issue was much worse than it is now, and while it's still not perfect it is greatly improved. I had a number of personal chats with Julien on the matter since I have a serious visual impairment and there were many parts of the site that I simply could not see at all. We received numerous complaints from all forums. For me the private message system was the worst because of the light gray text in the "your reply" box was impossible for me to see what I was typing. That has since been resolved. I don't know for sure, but I think this is going to be as good as it gets as far as visibility goes. I'm pretty sure that the light blue and gray are here to stay. Some of the lighter text will get more contrast when you mouse over it, so that helps a bit.
In the plus column there are many new features like a new events and meet-ups page that will make it much easier for °µÍø½ûÇøs to organize and announce their events, as well as invite selected members or make a general open invitation.
I particularly like the new feature of the pop-up when you mouse over the member's avatar that gives you their join date and path. I would, however, like to see the number of their postings and location included there rather than above their posting.
Another new feature that I really like, if you scroll down to the bottom of the main "°µÍø½ûÇø Forum" page, you can click on the "show recent posts" link which will list the recent postings on ALL of the various language versions of every forum in chronological order. So, if you're like me and what to keep tabs on the English and Portuguese language versions of our forums that's a lot easier to do.
We've just been on the new site for two months, so I can assure you that there will continue to be improvements and new functions coming down the pipe for some time yet. Julien doesn't settle for the "same old same old", he's always been really big on change and improvement.
Thanks for your vote of confidence in stating that you're glad to see I'm still holding down the fort, so to speak. It really is appreciated and just the kind of thing that keeps my volunteer spirit topped up.
Cheers,
James
°µÍø½ûÇø.com Experts Team