While feedback has been formally encouraged, it seems that most of the responses to complaints/suggestions has been overly defensive, i.e., everyone has worked really hard, we are the only SBN site lucky enough to even have forums, etc. Most CelticBlog members I suspect are not here primarily to be part of the SBN family and thus being told how lucky we are in comparison to other sites doesn't mean very much.
Quite simply, people are going to be drawn to the most prominent things on the Main Page, and right now, that is the FanPosts. No matter how much education is provided, their prominence in look and placement, will always keep them more prominent than the Forums for the 1st time visitor and/or more casual user.
Of course there are many hardcore posters who will always find and use the forums, but for many, the things they see immediately, not the ones they have to hunt for, will always take precedence. My suggestion would be to somehow give the Forums a similar place of importance and be as snazzy looking as FanPosts, otherwise FanPosts are going to by and large replace alot of Forum discussion, minus the Tommy Points which gave CelticsBlog alot of its charm in my opinion.
That being said, none of this is meant to take away from the time and obvious work that went into this update, or downplay how nice things look and how fast everything is. Merely a suggestion intended to help make the experience better and/or more like the best of what folks liked before.