A new forum platform is okay with me so long as I can select part of a post, click Reply/Quote, and have only the selected content quoted. An older iteration of the Cakewalk forum worked that way, but the current one does not, and few others I use do, either.
 
Also, the ability to embed images and files in posts without having to use a 3rd-party repository would be very desirable.
 
Actually, few other forums I frequent are as useable for me as this one, overall, but if I can have the above features, I'll adjust to everything else as necessary.
 
And I agree with others that the structure should not be changed radically. Specifically, having too many subforums should be avoided. It's easier to ignore a thread in which you have no interest in a free-for-all forum like this one than to check ten different subforums to make sure you're not missing something.

Wally. I think the reason you cannot add pictures directly is for a good reason. Adding a picture directly from your computer to a web page requires the servers to store that image. This forum would require much larger server storage to hold the images and whatnot so this is more costly for the forum provider.
The system this forum uses all images are just links to other servers where the pictures are stored, a true blue cloud system. 
So I don't mind the way we have things and I have a way I can post a screen shot in less than a minute. 
 
It requires two free services. One Drive ( or dropbox) and Imgur. 
You can set One drive or Drop box to save all screenshots to their Picture folder. = ALT/PRTSCRN  
You log on to Imgur and set it to stay logged on. 
And Imgur remembers your "browse" location so you save the screen shot, open Imgur, choose to upload an image and it opens in your One Drive folder and bingo. 
 
If you need to edit a picture you can "open" the screenshot in Paint and add little arrows and stuff. 
If you want to post a picture of a say your audio interface back panel, just use Google Images. You find it instantly. Some pictures don't work like the ones at Sweetwater that are using Flash player. 
 
 I agree Pictures are very helpful and this brings up an important topic about this forum. Newbie Rules! 
 
It's often a first time poster who has the most questions and they are frustrated by the fact they cannot post pictures or links. It would be nice to find a solution to this issue.
 
One I thought might work is that all Registered users of the software can post as full legit users from day one. Guests have limited rights and cannot post links. 
This would also clear out people pirating the software and expecting help. 
 
 

.

Cactus Music
 
The bakery was a classic case of  " we don't like this so we will not participate". 
 

Great point.
The Bakery was fail. The look and feel made no sense. Not only that but it seemed up-voting ideas got nothing accomplished.
 
Im excited for this next step with Bandlab.

+1

Sounds goo to me. 

chuckebaby

Cactus Music
 
The bakery was a classic case of  " we don't like this so we will not participate". 
 

Great point.
The Bakery was fail. The look and feel made no sense. Not only that but it seemed up-voting ideas got nothing accomplished.
 
Im excited for this next step with Bandlab.

 
 
+1

I love this forum, and I hope the new one can have a similar look and feel, and work the same. To me, it's very user-friendly. As for the "search," yes that never works so an improvement there would be most welcome.

A far as look and feel, please stay far, far away from anything like Get Satisfaction, Lithium, MyBB, phpBB, Reddit, StackExchange, or vBulletin.
 
In addition, many company websites which run their own forums tend to keep things in a very sterile sandbox that makes any sort of community interaction impossible.  The lack of community features, along with heavy handed moderation, makes you want to get in and out as quickly as you can get an answer.
 
I agree that XenForo would be a good choice.  Several other forums that I frequent are based on that, and they each have an active community.  They have good visual layouts and threads are easy to follow.  New posts can be easily viewed, and notification settings are flexible.  Search is functional.  Quoting and posting links and pictures is very usable.  Overall, the best that I have seen so far! 
 
Invision Community would be a close 2nd choice for me...

+1  No problem from me.
 
I have no preference concerning forum operating systems.