I was really glad to see the hub redesign when I logged in today. A really good modification that should introduce more players to MCGamer's other games.
I'm also looking forward to the change to 1.8. There's a lot of hesitation with this update, but I really think it's going to be a change very similar to the 1.7 change last year (where there was a lot of fuss over stability and then everyone adjusted).
If everything doesn't go as planned, you can always schedule an impromptu road trip to Alaska. I hear that's the "in" thing to do, nowadays.