I sort of like the more formal tone myself.
It leaves a smaller gray area which means less confusion (for me at any rate). Just looking at the old rules thread (thank you google), the new rules seem to leave less to chance or really just the personal opinion of the moderating team. Which for better or worse, should keep the rules seeming more fair to the average user I'd imagine.

The forums are based on Final Fantasy which is a game many play for fun, but I see TFF as so much more. It's a place to interact with friends you make, a place for discussing the most random crap imaginable AND it somehow manages to keep intellectual discussion more or less intellectual (and I mean in terms of TFF compared to several other forums offering their own intellectual discussion of sorts) and what I love most of all is the respect I see between members more often than not.

There are times things can be rocky, but in the end we're all like one of those large dysfunctional families that band together when need be.

True that concerning VMs though. Hell, I'm guilty of VM spam myself.
But then again, until this thread containing posts confirming that VMs were considered the same as other parts of the forum, I felt there was a gray area there. Hooray for ignorance?

You've done a damn fine job Loco.