And I hate to criticize, even gently, one who has been kind to me, but I really think you are taking offense where none was intended. And I've never understood your objection to the Religion forum as a ghetto. (My only problem with it is that The Never-Ending Story has so many posts, it's hard to find anything else.)
Jim, I never took part in the threads criticizing the new design. I wasn't enthusiastic at first, but I recalled that I wasn't enthusiastic about the last major redesign at first, and I'm such a creature of habit (like most people) that what is familiar is easier. I assumed the breaking down into separate forums was necessitated by the sheer volume of posts. Naturally, any vast amount of material has to be organized somehow, and any organization will be to an extent arbitrary. And practically any form of organization will be adequate once users become accustomed to it.
This thread reminds me too much of bitter scholarly disputes over whether a given writer should be classified as medieval or Renaissance (my own studies were largely in English literature) -- reality doesn't come in neat packages, and the labels we more or less agree on merely make it a bit more manageable.
Bless you both, and bless FR.
May I make a suggestion? When you are on the main Religion forum page, go to the upper right, and click on "Threads". This will display all of the most recent articles posted, rather than all the latest posts.