@lilbill15 Congratulations! I see you've been promoted to "Apprentice (3/14)". Maybe we're getting points for using the side-door as well?
I agree, the recent changes have taken the fun out of the site, but don't give up yet. Andy is very good at listening to- and sorting out site problems. The personal messaging service seems to have escaped the ranking system - should you have any queries and don't want to post till it gets sorted.