I may be asking too much here, but the forum might want to consider subdomains. For example:
Code:
highvoltage.e-cigarette-forum.com
or
Code:
beginners.e-cigarette-forum.com
or
Code:
marketplace.e-cigarette-forum.com
which would target specific groups/functions that receive relatively large portions of traffic, thereby freeing up space and forums on the forum index.
If that isn't a route the forum would want to take, possibly consider the collapsible tree/menu option (as has been mentioned before). If you make the sections of the forum on the index page (e.g. Announcements, Modding, Approved Suppliers, etc.) collapsible, I think it'd help to improve not only aesthetics, but user experience. A crowded page with a lot of information isn't pleasing to the eyes or the mind.
You could even further that feature into the realm of individual threads. That is, individual
posts within a
thread could be collapsible so that users could choose which posts they wished to read. In this sense (particularly if you utilized AJAX and dynamically-loaded content) you could save on, at least,
http bandwidth.
And if nothing I've mentioned intrigues anybody, then at the very least, and for the love of G-d, fix the search engine!
Sound good? Glad I could help.