Mayonnaise:
There were a number of factors involved. The forum system we were using before didn't conform to the most recent software conventions, so user / post data was nearly impossible to export. Also, there were many registrants in the old system that were, quite frankly, inactive, and to spend time and resources transferring them to this system seemed wasteful.
In addition, this forum is only one part of MonroeTalks.com, the core of which is designed to synchronize to each of its parts.
All of these factors contributed to the need for a fresh registration process--I think the community as a whole will benefit from this decision.
Of course, there were a number of ongoing conversations at the old Eyes & Ears forums, and a great deal of demand for their continuation, so I recreated the first page or two of recent threads here with links to the old posts, under my account since, as nerd said, the original posters had not yet registered here. You'll notice that I include the name of the last comment on the old forum in each transferred thread. I realize this creates inconvenient navigation, but I don't expect that to last. Already, we have many new topics.
So far the transition has been a smooth one, but we'll continue to work out the bugs and improve what I hope is an already superior community site.
Thanks for posting!