One thing I have notice in the design of this web site is that old threads are never ‘picked up on’. I don’t know exactly how to say it. Old threads vanish from activity / new post. Unless one is looking for some specific information, they tend to click on the new messages and respond to those messages. Some messages go forever without reply or comment. I can understand that when I ask questions about boating on this Sierrafan web page and not Trawlerweb.com. But, I think you get the picture. The solution may be found in other BBS.
I have always recommended the tree style of message board. Every reply is tabed in from its parent post and hidden until one clicks on a plus button.
I was also wondering if the actual message in this design could be put in an iframe with a fixed height of 3 to 4 lines. This may give a scroll bar to view the entire post without changing pages. Also, more of the other topics could be seen on one page with the restricted height.
Update: With the lack of post recently, I can hear the crickets now. : (