I agree with many, many of these replies.
One of my biggest peeves about the new forum is the default sorting of replies by "most liked." At the very least, we should be able to choose our own preferred sort and have it automatically applied forum-wide. A place where less-popular statements are buried by default and a chore to access can hardly be called a discussion forum, don't you think? And how is a reply supposed to gather more likes when it's kept out of sight, anyway?
Between this "upvote" culture and avatars being restricted to "high ranking" members (even if only temporarily), this site feels governed by one big popularity contest, and it's icky, IMO.