They just look like stock placeholders and in my opinion are way to big. Something a bit more discreet is my suggestion.
Looks very nice. I agree with fyzz, the old forum will be missed, and the pictures are a bit wonky. Oh, and I miss the pictures of the mod or feature being the first thing you see in the forums. Great start though.
It's a love/hate relationship. I like it, just seems a little crowded. Also I just need to get used to it. Good job Devs.
Number 2, definitely. It just looks better. Also i agree that being able to change the color of the green bar'd be great.
After the initial shock I think I will get used to it. Its already improved a lot from earlier today. I'm sure it wont be long before it feels like home again. My only suggestion is about the green bar. I feel it needs to be either the blueish grey or the faded orange to match the games UI. (see my super crude mock up image) Not that the forum needs to look like the game, but I feel it would help. Hopefully you aren't going to change the games UI to green. I'm not a fan of green.
I'm using Edge which sucks dick because even after deleting cookies and stuff Chrome still shows the old site with the message. Because my IRC client is a Chrome extension that got restarted as well and now it can't connect even though a minute ago it was working fine.
No one does and yet they get over it. Look at Youtube, it still sucks compared to what it used to be like, but people have gotten over it.