Doesn't really flow well. Would you read a book if every two lines had a huge font change, a long black line, and two or three big buttons in it? Annoying. Vbulletin forums like this one are nice because the text always appears in the same area. If you hide signatures, it's easy to scroll and read. With that forum your eye is constantly scanning for the beginning of the next sentence and trying to plow through speed bumps like extraneous graphics, usernames, etc.
As compared to S2, obviously it falls short. But I don't necessarily hate the new O-Live format. Might have to visit there once in a while, just to see if the new format affects discussion.
Moreso than the conversations, topics, trolling, or layout, it was a select few people (not the flamers, but the condescending ones) drove me out a few years ago. Haven't really missed it because of this place and BEdge.
I like their new setup its pretty slick combines some of the good parts of here and BEdge. Wasn't hard to improve the horrenous old version though that thing looked like it was from the world wide web before Netscape.