Wow i've arrived at this late i see. I've read it all ... some positive, some negative .. and i think somewhere along the way someone threatened to throw Phil naked to rabid wolves ... which is ermmm, different.
I sympathise with a lot of what everyone is thinking. I do like the idea there is some kind of facebook/twitter social media intergration as everybody is using it now days and it all links back there so is going to help spread the word about the Muppets and MC .. which is MEANT to be the sites goal from day one. I hope something is sorted for Webtv and mobile phone users as, as part of that goal, it'd be nice if everyone had access to MC.
As for the other ways it is built around a social media "experience" (ie active feeds and rewards and stuff) thats fine as long as those who aren't into that can just ignore it and continue to just post on the forum as they usually would ... remember not everyone is tech savvy and we have lots of "older" and "younger" members here.
The one thing i would agree with that others raised is PLEASE make some kind of borders around each post, showing clearly when one starts and one ends (rather than a faint line) as that is making it very hard visually to read .. if you can even do that with this software. Also the new design as it doesnt have any kind of frame around it really makes the "black" borders a lot more noticeable than before - could things not be expanded a little.
I like the integration of pictures and videos. I just hope the size of those pictures will be kept to a small size so that we aren't forever scrolling down endless pictures. Also i think i read somewhere that we are staying with the old signature rules yet i'm still seeing pictures in signatures. I really don't like pictures in signatures, it looks messy. The larger avatar is a nice enough treat!
Just on the points Jamie was making about people offering to help give a bit more "life" to the main MC site and offering to write things, draw things etc and getting a less than enthusiastic response. Not digging at anyone here, lifes way too short for that, but he makes a good point. I know this site isn't (technically) "ours" and whether it has turned into a commercial venture or a fan venture (albeit run by a hardcore Muppet fan) is probably a bit of a blurry issue but for many of us, regardless, Muppet Central is probably the longest thing we have ever been involved with in our lives (it is for me!), many people have grown up, got married and had kids through the course of their MC "history" (including the webmaster!) so it's a very very special place which people can be forgiven for getting passionate about and i just really would appeal to the people running MC to look back on that press release Phil wrote in 1998 about honoring and respecting the Muppets, keeping Jims vision alive and giving fans a place to read about and discuss the latest happenings. Great work has been done over the last 13 years. It's not an issue of needing to give up any "management" of the site but it'd just be nice if with the effort thats gone into revamping the forum in time for the Muppets new movie and new "beginnings" also leads into looking at how the actual site can be given more "fresher" content so that all the new (and returning) fans coming to the site soon have plenty to read and given the chance to contribute to as i think that would be a great way to raise awareness of Jim's work and the Muppets legacy rather than people logging on, flicking through and seeing the latest editorial (which was written in 2003!). The whole thing with the knowledge people have here could be nothing short of AMAZING, and no matter how much some of us have in our lives now i'm sure many would still give up their time just because it's MC and it's special to us all .. so if anything is possible .. nows probably the ideal time to make it happen!