Just something I noticed about the new design which shocked me, where have all the stats gone for each forum and category?! I always found this a very important part of a forum, it's like an instant show off to new visitors shouting "Hey join us we're active and have loads of posts". Devppl has nothing to hide, there must be thousands of posts and threads in each category! I also prefer the traditional vertical layout too if I'm honest. Don't shoot me Webmaster!
A lot of the time it's good to follow established conventions, people like familiarity - just like they like an active forum - just like how they like to know it's active within the first few seconds of looking.
