have a small leap of faith, john.
we didn't beat ourselves up over doing this forum software transition because we liked the pain. we hated it. no one hated it more than me, big time. and it ain't over yet.
there was never a great list of "supposed benefits" to forum users, though there are some user "enhancements", notably the ability to share video media by simply posting the video link address. this forum software also includes a paid subscription service that purports to both track and report on TMA Member memberships in an electronic manner, rather than dealing with manual methods. it will also allow for TMA sponsorships.
we made this software transition so that ALL of our TMA would be easier to to maintain, easier to update, and allow both "behind the scenes" and visible functionality we didn't have before. if we can administer the forum better, the better for the forum users. we couldn't do any of that with our old software. it was time for a change, whether anyone - including us - liked it or not.
so yeah, stuff happened you wouldn't understand, but the main thing is, guess what? you don't need to know any of that stuff, nor struggle with it. you just get to use the forum! isn't that a good thing? or is yer glass still half empty?