Hey Mike, respect your thoughts but hate to see you go. Maybe give it some time to see if CS can get it tweaked and looking better?
Dara,
thanks for putting up the survey. There is just a ton of scrolling. Minimal info taking up a ton of screen space. Decrease the scrolling and I would be happy.
Ditto. Also the screen shots in the survey were too small to be able to read. LOT of wasted screen space.
You can't just cut and paste a link to a website. Something about Control + V and Command + V. If it's not easy to use, people will not post.
Not good! : (
The old format was flawless. And Easy to look at. Why change something that isnt broke?
I agree the old forum was good, but apparently CS decided to spend some $$ on a new platform and is now trying to see what mods are available/allowed with it. I'm guessing we users are stuck with this at least for a while pending CS's attempts to see what leeway they have in the software they bought. The survey results so far seem to be heading for a somewhat better format, but still constrained by the overall platform design.
I have been trying to like the new forum format., and not having much success I have even visited the hoop.la site to see what it is all about. There is a lot to read (see the link) so this may take a lot of time to get it right. For now though, I am disappointed. I have been a member since 2012 and will stick it out for the foreseeable future. Time will tell.
Oh man, this new forum(?) Blog sucks! I have written to CS, asking them to revert back to the old forum. Please join me in doing the same. So much info there, and now it's not accessible! Really frustrating.
Thanks!
On a side note: I wrote to CookShack and they responded quickly. I now understand that they had no other option (but I still don't like it).
"Our old forum provider has technically not been in service for years but was still allowing companies to use the old platform through a different provider. That provider has phased out our old platform. "
It seems CS lacked enough detail and knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of what they signed up for. I wonder if the tech support they got setting it up really took the time to understand the needs of the users, and as you say, the vast resources easily available on the old platform. I can just hope there are unexplored capabilities on this new platform that can be utilized to improve the experience.
If you visit hoop.la, you can see what they promise.
While I'm slow at learning and change, I'm starting to be able to navigate myself around the site. Finally found the advance find page. It's getting easier and not as much of a pain as the first few weeks. I'll stick around. 
I just posted to the New Forum and LOVE IT, SO EASY TO POST.
THANK YOU!
I Will be posting more often, much eaiser to post now.
I didn't even have to RES my files down.
Darn it I have posted most of my Smoking lately on my Instagram.
So easy to post photos now.
I will post a video of a Brisket dripping.
I don’t even bother checking out this forum anymore. It’s that bad.
One word
TERRIBLE
Takes so long to find anything I usually move on to other sites after getting aggravated with this new version.
Agree. Very awkward. I visited the hoopla site early on and convinced myself that they they know programming but do not know ease of use and probably did not research other forum for style and ease of use. I am pretty much absent from this forum unless I get a notice like I did this morning. This format has to be hurting Cookshack sales. If I was in the market for a new smoker, and this is the best they can come up with for a forum, I would be looking elsewhere. Too bad.
This forum was the reason I bought my FEC-100 almost six years ago. I agree that the current lack of activity and crappy format will hurt Cookshack in the long run. I'm active on the BBQ Brethren forum, and while several of the members there have FEC-100's, you rarely hear them talking about their cookers or Cookshack in general. Other than Butcher BBQ you don't hear much about Cookshack in competition these days, and that also drives sales.
I am active on a couple of other forums as well, mostly Smoking meat Forums and Smokin-it but also Lets Talk BBQ. I bought the Amerique 066 back in 2012 and the Cookshack forum had a lot to do with it. Times change but not always for the better. The person running this forum knows how I feel and I even sent info on the other forums and requested they look into changing companies. I guess it was a no go. Too bad. People buy what is popular; they want to be part of a family and cultivate friendships and share experiences in the world of Q. Unfortunately this forum is not the place to do it. Too bad. Cookshack is a great company with great products.