Changes in Forum mechanics?

A couple of weeks ago I had to spend a few days in the hospital. When I got out, and resumed taking part in the Forum again (one of my favorite pastimes), I noticed some changes regarding the way posts appear without explanation. (Maybe I missed something while I was away.) The options of using italic, bold-faced, and multi-colored type seem to have disappeared. (In a sense that can be seen as a blessing. I participate mainly in the "Ships" section, and I wish I had a dollar for every time I've edited one of my posts because I forgot to italicize the name of a ship.) More seriously, the new format doesn't seem to support paragraph breaks. (Paragraphs used to be divided by a double-space. Now, they show up that way when I type them - and when I edit them - but not in the final, posted version.) I have a rather old computer; maybe it has something to do with the problem. If not, though, I hope FSM will consider re-instituting the paragraph break (at least). Those of us who are guilty of writing too-long posts need all the help we can get to keep our stuff from looking either stupid or intimidating.