I have no idea how technical this is but users being able to directly upload their custom thumbnails without emailing would be great!
I like the floating "maintenance continues" thing here, since you can't really miss it. maybe you could use something of a similar fashion for upcoming events in the future? like a headline and then a link to the actual news page for details?
I liked it when you could see the latest comments/new characters ect on the right side of the page, it disappears once you go into a thread as well as "latest topics". Edit: oops that one has already been mentioned, my bad!
Insert really edgy and unique title here
Sirloin Steak vs. Buffy Blueberry
@ 4:24 AM Mar 29th