Personally, I love the format of FR. Maybe it’s my many years of reading rec.motorcycles.harley over on Usenet, but I find simple text the best way to run a discussion forum.
If you aren’t already on the monthly donor track, get there! (note to all)
Jim: I really like the idea to put some sort of indicator on the posts of monthly donors ($5 minimum perhaps). I think it would promote more monthly donors and make your job easier.
It has been pointed out that poor Freepers would be targeted. Being poor shouldn't mean you are not a good poster.
From a usability perspective, I like the FR format, you can quickly see the thread titles, glance at which ones interest, or don’t interest you, see the posts and who posted it, without having to click the mouse. Sure it may look relatively spartan, but I prefer simplicity.
If there would be only one thing I wish they could add, it would be to have the ability to self-edit posts. Nothing worse than knowing you made a grammatical error right after you hit ‘Post’.