Wow... lots of feedback... great

I'll try to address all of the comments- let me know if I forgot thing...
First- the crunchy and compressed new look of the forums.
This happens mostly due to the left sidebar we introduced. The font and font-size haven't actually changed- but the spacing among the letters got smaller (ie, squished), hence the crunchy feeling. We'll fix this shortly (today / tomorrow), get the spacing back to how it was.
Regarding the left sidebar there's a reason for it, too

we've put it there for navigation purposes, as well as a placeholder for future banner ads, when we into it. It won't happen in the next weeks, most likely afterwards.
Speed and performance (takes too much time to load, freezing, etc)- Now that's an important one we'll start monitoring more closely. The server that runs paw-talk had a few load issues- we've cleared most of these issues- lets see how the sites performs in the next few days.
Luvnature, you mentioned cp access problem- fixed it.
Regarding the old popular discussions on the homepage- we'll get it so it'll show up popular discussionf from last XXX months.
Nikko- pawtalk logo will shortly be on a higher quality. maybe it's time to run a logo contest, as you all said...
Formula- we'll get a "new post" link from the homepage, rather than click to the forums and then on "new posts". good point.
Dena- good catch with the "view first unread posts"- will be fixed shortly. Dena you also mentioned the sidebar didn't come up on certain threads- can you send papabeten or me these threads if you encounter them again?
Luvnature- regarding the missing avatars / smilies and the little red X instead of them, can you pm me / papabeten such a URL when you see it? many thanks
Tarita- the "posting takes to first page" will be fixed, thanks
Hmm. Did I miss anything?