This is truly a sad day.
This thing shows John's talents, he could make a fortune as a web engineer but I'm not sure if this particular design for this particular forum works. The simplicity of the old setup I think had a lot to do with FRs popularity.
All of this customization and compartmentalization will water us down. Everyone is going to have their own little freep world and it's even possible for two posters to never meet each other.
It was more user friendly and effective when everyone was "on the same page".