The topic overview icons have no real value at this current state. When asking my users about what they actually mean, most of them can't really tell the purpose of the icons. Why not give them more value by adding the thumbnail of the topic creator like this forum software is doing it?

screenshot

This has come up a few times before and it's something that we've mulled over for a while.

That is really something that should be talked over. Also the forum icons on the forum frontpage are too static which should be changeable by the admin, so that each forum icon represent its content.
Thank you for taking it into consideration. (:

You can add your own forum icons as I have done here by using html in the forum description. There's also a mod for this.

I agree that the icons to the left are pretty much useless and most people wouldn't know what they mean. There's not even a legend explaining what they are which seems strange to me.

3DKiwi