My (100 and) 2 cents

Folks, I'll be blunt. I don't like it, at least not in the current state.

Honestly, this design feels like a step back when compared to my proposed design (https://zencart.zenexpert.com). The font sizes are exaggerated, and merging the section backgrounds and using non-contrasting colors makes the whole thing lose its impact. Those "Tailor-Made" boxes? That style was popular years ago and it feels outdated now.

The "wow" factor: I understand the "effects" are subjective to developers and it's not to everyone's liking, but they are essential for store owners. Smooth scroll reveals (wow.js/animate style) provide that professional polish which converts a skeptic into a user because it feels modern and fancy...

HOME PAGE / HEADER
Documentation: Why is this a "click to show" menu? It should be instant.
Deployment Steps: There's a delay when clicking steps before the image changes. It's confusing - it makes the site feel broken rather than dynamic.
The Comparison Page: This is a huge selling point for Zen Cart, but it’s buried. It should be front and center under "Support" with the Demo.
Accessibility: I spent ages sorting contrast and accessibility issues on the Bootstrap version. It looks like those problems are back on the menu. Has John even seen this yet?
Community Forum: Really should go under "Support" for both clarity and UX. Anyone looking for support can clearly see the only support offered is Community Forum, and at the same time you're giving more exposure to the Comparison page.

DOWNLOAD PAGE
Again, please compare with the proposed design. Personally, I'm not convinced I'm getting something modern and it doesn't look like I'm making a great choice. Keep in mind we're trying to impress an average shop-owner who needs to feel like they're getting started with a modern platform.

SERVICES PAGE
Seems like a huge step back from the proposed design. We are once again going back in time and not following modern standards and modern UX... It's just not attractive and doesn't boost confidence.

FORUM
The current color scheme is just… boring. It’s too mild to be engaging. Drop the backgrounds and go with clean white - look at GitHub or StackOverflow, they don't need backgrounds to look professional. Also remove or reduce the border radius on boxes - we're not in 2016.
Clean up: Move the stats to the bottom. Above the fold is for content, not data.
Waste of space: Drop the "Subscribe," "First," and "Last" post buttons from the main view. They belong inside the thread.

Accessing ANY forum post, the page jumps and cuts off the top of the original post.
The color scheme on this page is slightly better, but I'd go with something a bit different. Drop the background (again, really no need, white is perfect – just think github, stackoverflow etc). Drop border-radius for boxes or minimize them to 2-3px.
The "Big Nope" on UX: Putting the reply and like buttons at the top of a post is just wrong. I scroll to the end to read the post - that’s when I want to reply. Forcing a user to scroll back to the top just to interact is a massive UX fail.
The current forum has it organized very well – date and post number (permalink) at the top, followed by contents, ending with action buttons.
Speaking of – where's the specific post permalink? How do I link to ie. post #713 which is on page 36 of the OPC support thread? (Since you're displaying 20 posts per page, it's actually page 72 on the current forum: https://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php/220781-One-Page-Checkout-Support-Thread?p=1341257#post1341257)

PLUGINS
Again, drop the background, please.
Looking at the list of plugins, may I suggest a short description field for new plugin submissions, and simply truncate the existing description to 250 chars. Take a look at https://new.zen-cart.com/plugins/type/other-modules-vb7 and see how much space the description is taking (especially AIO Accessibility).
As already mentioned, it only displays the latest author and there's no changelog for older releases. This REALLY needs fixing.

Has there been any discussion about the Remote Plugin Installer that I proposed last year (https://github.com/zencart/zencart/discussions/7247%29? I did present it to DrByte but never heard back. It would involve some basic restructuring and this seems like a perfect opportunity to do so.
Also, any chance we could get a Latest Plugins page which would list ALL plugins sorted by date added/updated?

THE TEMPLATE SECTION
I see this page was dropped. Honestly? That's a mistake. Attracting theme developers is the only thing that's going to drag Zen Cart out of the mud. If we don't give them a reason to build for us, we don't give merchants a reason to stay.

BOTTOM LINE: I'll keep saying it until I'm blue in the face - design is what sells the platform. Functionality is why they stay, but they won't even walk through the door if the "pretty" isn't there first.

The font sizes are exaggerated - agreed
Documentation: Why is this a "click to show" menu? It should be instant. - agreed, I prefer your header menu to the new one.
Deployment Steps: There's a delay when clicking steps before the image changes. - The images are huge, haven't been resized, which slows it down. optimization probably left for later.
The Comparison Page - agree with your point.
Community Forum: Really should go under "Support" for both clarity and UX. - agreed
DOWNLOAD PAGE - getting to the downloads page requires clicking either the "get started" button or the "Download Zen Cart" farther down the home page. The link to the download(s) needs to be in the header.
SERVICES PAGE - I am not bothered by the proposed new version.

FORUM
Drop the backgrounds and go with clean white - agreed
Clean up: Move the stats to the bottom. - agreed, the stats are useless information that I have never paid any attention to, so they can go at the bottom, in case some cares.
Waste of space: Drop the "Subscribe," "First," and "Last" post buttons from the main view - I think it is fine to leave them there.
Accessing ANY forum post, the page jumps and cuts off the top of the original post. - yes, it does do that, weird.
Putting the reply and like buttons at the top of a post is just wrong - agreed, should be top and bottom like the current forum.
Where's the specific post permalink? - agreed, where did the permalink go? Use it all the time.
PLUGINS- This REALLY needs fixing. - agreed, it is a bit of a mess
THE TEMPLATE SECTION - agreed, we need a page where there are, at minimum, images of templates, preview(send you to the demo of the template) and some description.

I'm sure it's not the first or the last time, but I agree with Mike. :P

Hi all

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm not a designer and my css/html foo is average.

The initial conversion from bootstrap to tailwind was pretty (not pretty) basic.

My apologies for murdering your vision.

I will get around to updating based on feedback here

Just a note

on the template section.
This was added to your site long after I started the conversion. The same with the link on the home page to "What does Open Source mean?"

My main focus was building the backend cms/forum/plugins code
So hadn't caught up on those

Was the "like" button removed? I saw it before, but not anymore. We still not having the reply button at the bottom.

I believe the fonts can be increased a bit... They're really small for me. 🙁

The template section is really needed, and I believe the showcase too.