I can't agree with post #15 more so.
New is not necessarily better. That should be the overriding thought in the minds of everyone involved in this change.
Anything that is popularity based, should be removed from the forum. If one cares about clicking on a Like button, there can go to a Facedork group. This BBS is about information, not popularity.
Given that, having good (meaning useful) search options is critical. Search should be limited to this BBS. If someone wants to go search Google, they can leave the site.
The three most important pieces of information that should be visible at the top of each post are: The user name, the post date and the post number. This information must be in the largest, boldest font. Too many forums, have the post date and join date of the user in the same font and size. No one cares when the user joined the forum and if one needs to know that, they can go to the users public profile.
100% of the text in BBS needs to be selectable with a mouse. Many forums have too much Javascript junk, where one can't select text with a mouse.
Don't break the BBS so that it works poorly for people with computers, so that people using barely functional computers (phones) have an easier time.