I think the blunder here was in not getting everyone excited about the upcoming changes weeks ago. The transition would have been smoother and the users less "jostled" if they had seem some screen shots and seen some of the new features that may have been added before "Go Live".
It's a bit frightening and unnerving to stoners that loyally visit this website when drastic change comes and it's very unexpected. The patience level would be higher and the desire to like it would have existed with a little more upfront effort on the part of the admins.
I'm sure it's an improvement, although it looks a little cartoonish right now, but judging by things it was a pretty big upgrade and some of the fine tuning on the "design" aspects may take some time. It looks to me as though this is the infant stages of a newer more modern site. The other site had become a little dated and I welcome the change and I'm actually a little excited to poke around and find the new features settings. I guess that's the geek in me.