I don't expect anyone to take this suggestion seriously, but I want to get it off my chest.
Surfing the forums I feel there's too much information vying for my attention. Words, letters, patterns. It's visually/cognitively noisy.
If I had it my way, the focus should be on the posts first, then the user, then the most essential functions. Everything else should be folded away into menus to keep things clean.
I realize it's a tall order to expect someone to micro-design the layout. I don't expect that. But on the off-chance this is within reach, it would be sweet.