pat,
There are 3 board styles that you can select to use on the forum. However, the things that are available on each one are different. Whoever designed these, with their great differences, has to be a total idiot. To change board styles, go to User control panel/board preferences/board style. You'll get a drop-down list of the 3. Here's the 3 and their differences.
(1) subsilver2. The original. This is, by far, the most complete. On each individual post, there are direct buttons to PM the author of the post and to see his Profile. Click search and you're automatically in Advanced search. The only problem is that there's no Kitco.
(2) prosilver. There is a PM button on each post but no Profile button. There is no direct advanced search. Search is regular search, which is far, far inferior to advanced search. It does have Kitco.
(3) CA Gen2. I think this is the default. By far, the worst of the 3. No PM or Profile buttons on the posts. No direct advanced search. Has Kitco.
In (2) and (3), there are indirect ways to get advanced search, PM, and Profile. However. these ways are not intuitive and you must figure them out and go to other pages. With (1), subsilver2, it's all right there. You can't miss it. I am very willing to sacrifice Kitco to get these other great advantages.