the new setup is retarded from a functional perspective. i'm scrolling way more than ever, and i have 1600x1200 resolution.
first, a big chunk of my screen is wasted on the AT menubar. if i wanted to go to AT, i'd go there. put a small link at the top if you want to encourage people to go there. the entire site nav bar is way overkill.
second, the side bar decreases usuable browser space by a ton, even when you've scrolled down away from it and can't see it anymore. if you want to show ads, show ads, but at least put them at the top and bottom where they don't squish the forums. and the "toolbar" is the answer to a question no one was asking. not to mention you can't even see what it says because the catagories are too long. so please, for godsake, let us make it go away.
third, underneath the AT nav bar, I have a giant blue blank space, about twice the size of the nav bar. YAY! MORE WASTED SPACE!
fourth, the spaces between posts, yup, you guessed it, waste space, AND i automatically think i'm at the end of the thread after every single post.
not to mention, i'm sure this crap dramatically increases server load on every page, and slows down page rendering times.