NEW FORMAT... do you have the same problems & concerns I do?

I had so many problems myself with the new version (even though I'm a Top Contributor in some, and familiar with everything) that I finally resorted to using the Canadian version which still uses the old format. I'm pretty sure the new format will be coming to all boards at some point, but for now I'm just hoping they get some of the more egregious problems fixed/altered before I have to go back to the new format.

At that point, I may have to finally abandon YA after all this time though because some of those things make it extremely difficult to give decent answers and really don't want to waste my time and effort.

(YA is only 1% or so of Yahoo's business though I've heard, so the chances they'll do anything is probably small and way down the totem pole...they may even want to get rid of it without having to be the bad guy themselves.)

Btw, I personally don't care if the site format is purple instead of green.

The green wasn't all that great and the new purple isn't either (it's not very "artistic" in appearance with the various huge solid dark purple areas, and the user interface is even more confusing and unthoughtful).

It's the *functionality* that's a problem for me. Here are just a few examples of unacceptable new problems that affect me in particular (that I ran across right away):

BIGGEST PROBLEMS FOR ME--so far:

1....no arrow in bottom right of answer window to "pull out and down" to expand typing field from only 5-6 measly lines of text to more lines ...when composing an answer of more than 5-6 lines, much harder to be concise and accurate if can see only 5-6 at one time without scrolling up-down, up-down, trying to remember (reminds me of the dinosaur-days electric word processor units where only a few lines were every visible at a time)

2....after editing, all text turns into a solid blob made up of only one huge gray paragraph (all line breaks and paragraph breaks disappear) ...can then hit browser's Refresh icon to make the formatting come back, but what a hassle do do every time, and most people don't even know they can "fix" it

DON'T LIKE, BUT COULD FIGURE OUT HOW TO LIVE WITH (but with bad taste in mouth for Yahoo brand):

3...the text in answers is not black, and not even dark (...why would anyone think a site primarily about reading text would be better off being *harder* to read?)

4...also glaring and hard on eyes is the *bright* blue text for questions on a category page, instead of a more grayed-down blue ...my eyes have a hard time not jumping around and being confused, annoyed

5...things that were easy to navigate to before (and which I use often) are now more difficult to get to--must click several times instead of just once, e.g., to get to my previous questions/answers, starred answers, etc. ...my icon now goes only to "My Profile," which I don't even use/want

6...YA tabs on my bookmark bar are huge dark purple blobs overwhelming all the other icons--may remove them from my bookmark bar and just get to my YA categories another way

7...dislike that little sperm-looking exclamation point wiggling/darting around the Yahoo icon every time a new page is accessed...that's like the *blinking* ads I used to have, and those I eventually blocked with a Post-It on that part of screen

7b.....can scroll down to only 3-4 days' worth of previous Open questions (e.g., in Sculpture, Hobbies/Games) ...then are directed to "other categories" and perhaps only one week's worth of previous Open questions (using all categories)?

"FIXED"? --OTHERWISE A HUGE PROBLEM for me

8... links from Google and Bing for regular searches and image searches won't become clickable links; the end parts of the url become separate in ways that aren't even easy to cut and paste... haven't tried Yahoo searches yet; if they work that would be just a little too evil to swallow

(. . . JUST CHECKED again and appears all the search links will now work, even if they look wonky and like they won't work)

The new ability to add images (and some links show up as images now?) and to add to old questions with Reference feature seem good, but haven't figured out how to use them.

P.S. There are definitely fewer questions (and answers) in the 3 categories that I visit as other people have mentioned, starting just after the new version which has now rolled out in the U.S.

I can understand why because the categories I read are some that really require answers, not just social interaction and quickie often not-very-smart answers. And many things in the new version are harder to do, or impossible. I think a lot of people have passed a critical limit of tolerance for frustration and are doing other things or just visiting other sites. Time will tell I guess.