I understand that Penguinbait's new sig reads to you like "If I can't have it my way I'm taking my ball and leaving," but I think that's unfair. Penguinbait made his statement politely, and kindly left us a forwarding address.

First off, it's possible that he finds the new forum hard to read, not because he's 5 years old but for the opposite reason. As I almost replied to George Fragos:
Besides, Penguinbait has a right to feel the way he does on aesthetic grounds. Think of the forum as a cafe you frequent and like a lot. Then the owners change the decor to something you just can't stand. Would you keep going there? Even if you would, can you imagine someone else who would choose not to? Would you find it babyish that he chose to drink his coffee elsewhere?

Further, imagine that the cafe owners could give you magic glasses that would allow you to see the cafe the way you liked it while at the same time not impacting the cafe's actual appearance for any of the other customers. Wouldn't you find it rather irritating that they would refuse to let you wear the glasses? In fact, it might strike you as incomprehensibly totalitarian. In that case, you just might conclude that "the fun is coming to an end," and you really wouldn't want to come back.

Penguinbait has been a great and generous contributor to this forum. I put him in a small elite, with fanoush and gnuite and just a few others. What I don't get is why the powers-that-be wouldn't cater to a request that is not wildly idiosyncratic (look at his poll and all the other requests) and is very little skin off anyone's back. (It's not as if he's asking for a change in the default; he's merely asking for an option, of which there used to be many. See my other post on this.)

Instead I read this foolishness from these powers-that-be about how he ought to be volunteering to participate if he wants something different. But he knows full well that what he wants already exists and that they just won't provide it as an option. Besides, it's not as if he's a lazy duffer. He's participated plenty. E.g., not only did he create the Console Tools but he answered a zillion forum members' questions about it. So, rather than web design or community politics, creating code for the Tablets and helping its users has been his form of participation. It doesn't give him power, but I believe it ought to grant him respect.