The Forum does indeed have a new layout which is still being tweaked by Ash and his team, generally it has received favourable reviews but there are still a few minor issues outstanding.
As for the VERY annoying adverts, I am afraid that we are stuck with them as they pay for the free Forum. Ash is running a business and it is a necessary fact of life that the Forum has to pay for itself. The work put in by the team last week (all degree standard software engineers) came to several £100's and this cost has to come from somewhere. Sorry!