Why does this stupid new sidebar exist?

It recently started getting released to people. I got it yesterday. Are you referring to the background of the screenshot not being the background I currently have?

This is the old sidebar:

I see no changes yet

i want it changed back immedately

That's a different update.

This is when the current one was released.

https://www.chess.com/announcements/view/update-improved-navbar

Seems like they fixed the notifications capping at 9

It does allow you to edit it somewhat, which i think is kinda cool.

Though I find it a lil' ugly in Light UI. Just gonna collapse it instead.

It was changed to a 99 cap

No number is actually needed here.

no, the other one. for me, the sidebar is now white for some reason.

Now I have the so so interface too...

I had two tabs with chess.com opened, refreshed one of them and saw that stuff from screenshots above

For the old interface:

For those about to rock, we salute you!

I will hold the tab with the old interface for a while:

Does anybody know what happened to the little connection bars that showed you your connection to chesscom? Do I need to enable it to make it show up?

I like new capabilities:

As for the connection bar:

Is there anyway to check my connection status before starting a live game? On the old UI, there was a connection status bar available to let me know if my connection was good before starting a live game.

But I took that screenshot without playing a game

Hmm, mine doesn't show the bars, it just displays my name.

Nevermind, I found it, thanks!

so is there no way to access awards, trophies, achievements & passports now?

That's not extremely useful anymore, before a game anyway, unless you're going to play a tournament. The system won't know what live server you're going to get connected to until you're paired with an opponent.

Yeah, I agree. The update is bad