Well said Nigel.
The forum seems to be going through a somewhat negative phase these past couple of weeks. What with so-called missing members (just as though we're talking scores rather than a handful, and ignore the scores of new posters), snobbish posting (I still can't figure that one out), hatred of smilies (and yet they can be switched off) and now a dislike of the stats that appear under a posters name, which too can be switched off. There's even a facility where you can switch the lot off and go back to a non-WYSIWYG editor if you don't like any of the new upgrades.
How about if we all buy old typewriters and send letters to each other?
Even then somebody would be crying for quill pens and inkwells and pigeon post.