Doug William sent this response (which I'm posting with his permission):

I think maybe the biggest problem with this new format is that it has a veneer of formality whereas the 'old' format gave much more a sense of dialogue. In fact the dialogue itself with immediately viewable. You could read it as an ongoing discussion. The current format absolutely encourages the 'Ask Jim Pretzer a Question' approach-- because everything at the site does end up being compartmentalized and you can't immediately see any ongoing interaction. Instead of a conversation about a given topic, everthing looks like its divided into topics--- and I agree that seeing Jim Pretzer's name all over the "topic list' as the initiator and responder does give the wrong impression.

My idea-- and I can see you possibly cringing at this!---- is for you to make contact through private messaging with the poeple who have participated and introduce this idea of having a 'discussion'. I think the one-on-one effort would bear some fruit. I would be willing to do this myself, but I think the impact of you making the effort to contact people could help to 'light up' the forum a bit. If you don't want to do this, I will give it go--- but I think you doing it does give a much bigger impression!!

Thanks for your time-- again

-Doug