I don't know if this has been covered or not, but here's a feature I'd really like to see:

Some forums (such as Active forums, Gleemax old forums - I forget which forum software they used, etc.) have a feature where you can mouse over on a topic, and a yellow "alt" type preview box shows the first paragraph or so worth of information within the topic itself.  This is a VERY useful feature, as it allows an end user the capability to see what a topic is about when the subject line is misleading, hard to understand, vague, etc.  As an end user, this feature saves me countless hours from having to click into each topic to see if I'm even interested or not.

For example, here's what one might look like:

Topic subject: Help!

Topic text:  I'm having problems trying to figure out....aalskdjfksadfasdfaksfklaf  ;alskdjf;als alkjsdf lkj alkdf etc.

From the main board screen with the list of topics, you can quickly mouse over the "Help!" topic/subject line, and a yellow "alt" box will appear stating "I'm having problems tyring to figure out" + a paragraph or so of additional text.  That lets the end user know whether he actually wants to click into the Help! topic, or not.