Hello!
You might have noticed that this place has changed a little bit since you last saw it. Welcome to the Sonic Stadium Message Board - 2015 Edition! The moderators, Bmn and myself have been working really hard these last few weeks to make sure the upgrade from IPB 3 to IPB4 was as seamless as possible, whilst also taking the opportunity to update the look and feel of The Sonic Stadium in a modern way.
So there are a whole bunch of technical things that have changed, as well as cosmetic changes that relate to how the forum works. You'll see your username above the main content area: click that and a dropdown menu will appear containing most of the options you need to work your profile. Next to your username are a bunch of quick icons that take you to Notifications and Direct Messages. In the blue bar underneath the header, you'll see an 'SSMB' link on the far right (next to the search button), hover your mouse over that and you'll see different sections of the forum, like Calendar and Forum Staff pages etc. Posting replies is simpler than ever, and a lot of the bugs that have been prevalent in the forum this past year have been squashed.
(Needless to say though, that if you're seeing anything that's a bit wonky, do post in the Member Feedback/Bug Reports forum, as it will help us troubleshoot stuff!)
The cosmetic changes are part and parcel of a wider initiative by myself to reinvent The Sonic Stadium in 2015. Did you know that this plucky little website will be 15 years old in October? It's been through an awful lot, and with the changing habits of forum goers and website readers alike I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to present the site (and forum) in a way that makes sense for everyone in today's era. That's why you see a chop-and-change of some of the forum listings on the homepage - SSMB has been re-organised so that discussion is at the top of the list, and the more popular forums are front and center so you can access them much more easily.
Needless to say, SSMB's butterfly change into this current form is a prelude to what will soon happen on The Sonic Stadium itself, later this year - a lot more housecleaning is needed on the main site yet, before I can fully unleash the revamped design. Either way, I hope you like this new look and functionality, and are looking forward to what's coming soon!
As this is brand new forum software, there will naturally be some elements that haven't crossed over to this new SSMB immediately - namely Badges. We are working hard to get these back, don't worry. They're not lost forever! We're working on a way of getting them back to you. 
Stay tuned on that front!
You can comment on this news in the topics situated in the Announcements forum, here.