Gods, that's a blast from the past!
I can't remember exactly when it was, but the new layout (which is what we have now) is from when Grav was an Admin and
gravitised the forums.
http://web.archive.org/web/200503250...ron.com/forum/
There's one from October 11th - 11 days after I'd joined. You'll even find a thread by me if you look closely.
http://web.archive.org/web/200408041...ron.com/forum/
Look at the difference between Aug 4th and October 11th.
You start to see difference as you go through 2005, but it's not until June 18th, 2006, that you see the new Gravitised layout:
http://web.archive.org/web/200606142...ron.com/forum/
And then throughout 2007 you see the odd forum changing name, or a new one being added in.
Cor, the nostalgia is hitting now!
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I'm in the other boat - whilst I did like the old setup, and got quite used it, I prefer the new one. For one, there are fewer forums to have to scroll through, and for someone who, at the time, didn't post in any other than the general chat forums, the others got a bit annoying, particularly when I wanted to get to the RPG Maker forum at the bottom of the page.
One thing I will say, though - bring back "Mark Forums Read" in the top bar! Pwetty pwease?