New Sims Forum Feedback

I would like to have:
 -Custom avatars
-Signature banners
-A way to hide the panel of stuff that's on the right side so that the main text area becomes centered on the screen instead of being shoved to the left side of the screen
-The option to make the font size slightly larger (as a personalization option)
-Sub-categories within the categories (for example, "Sims Creative Corner" divided into stories, lots, sims etc. like we have on this forum)
-A quicker way to return to the Sims 4 main page after looking at your own profile (currently, once you open your own profile, you can only jump back to the EA Forums page and then have to re-click on Sims 4 to get to the Sims 4 page)
-A way to jump straight to the last comment that you read, but still have all comments be in chronological order (like we can do here) so you can continue reading the discussion from where you left off.
-A way to turn off the snippet text below the thread names so the list of threads showing on a category's main page doesn't look so overwhelmingly cluttered. I just want to see the names of the threads and who created it not the first paragraph of each thread in that list.
-A way to turn off the automatic line skip when hitting "enter".  I would like to control whether a line gets skipped or not myself, not have it be automatic.

I am very disappointed by:
 -Images in threads that were imported from the old forum no longer being seen as images. A lot of the threads we nominated to be moved here were nominated because we wanted to preserve all those screenshots people shared.  The story threads and screenshot sharing threads in particular are completely ruined because all the pictures are not visible.  To expect us to go back and re-link each and every image in thousands and thousands of comments is very frustrating.

Things I do like:
-The tool bar is at the bottom of the text box instead of the top.  This is awesome.  When creating a long post, I don't have to keep scrolling back up to the top of the box to use the tools.
-Being able to actually see the images I include in the post as I am writing and putting them in (rather than only seeing the link until I post the comment).  This is really helpful for making sure I linked the right image.

More detailed comments:

I find the new forum very cluttered, in a way that makes it feel unpleasant to me.

The main reasons are:
-too many things on the screen (especially the side panel on the right needs a way to be hidden from view)
-the main panel is shoved to the left (off center, making it feel uncomfortable to read)
-the lists of threads have lengthy snippets that make make the whole thing feel overwhelming and cluttered to me. It gives me that off-putting "wall of text" feeling that makes me want to just leave.

Old forum, list of threads is centered. There is nothing else on the page besides the list. The list is just titles, so many titles fit on the screen, and it is easy to read what the titles are.

New forum, list of titles is shoved to the left side of the screen because of the unnecessary panel of tags and highlights and featured stuff that I don't even want to see when I am looking at the list of threads in this category. And each thread has a lengthy snippet that makes it so I can only see a couple titles at a time, and I also just feel off-put by how much text there is.

The same problems occur even when reading just one thread.

Old forum, nice and clean, centered, just the thread I'm reading.

New forum, cluttered and off-centered.

For me, it feels unpleasant and makes me not want to stay and try to read anything. I feel overwhelmed by sensory input, and just generally uncomfortable. We need some options to hide the side panel, hide the snippets, and to make the main thread or category list centered in the screen. Different people will probably have different preferences, so it would be nice if these options could be personalization settings for our own accounts.

I also find it difficult to read lengthy threads such as long ongoing discussions, and serially posted stories. Using the "by oldest" sorting option puts things properly in chronological order (this is good), but then I have to scroll and scroll and scroll to get to the part I haven't read yet (this is bad). The "by newest" option puts things in reverse chronological order (which is useless because then the story is backwards). I would like an option to put things in chronological order and then jump straight to the posts I haven't read yet.

It's like if you have a book and your only options are start at the beginning and read forwards, or start at the end and read backwards. You have no option to start where you left off last time and continue reading forward.

In general, this new forum doesn't feel as inviting for having discussions and sharing things as the old one does. It feels more like a forum to ask questions and get answers. Obviously, we can still use it for discussions, but it just feels like it's not set up with that use in mind.