Suggestion from another forum I haunt (a recumbent bicycle forum called "'bentrider online" http://www.bentrideronline.com/messageboard/forumdisplay.php?f=2 ):
In the forum itself, if one hovers their pointer over any given topic, a small popup window appears with the text of the original post...not the whole thing, but about 7 or 8 lines of text. This allows one a quick shot of what the topic is really about (esp. since many topics get 'mystery' subjects). I have found that little feature to be quite the neat idea...and it keeps me from having to open those mystery topics just to find it is something I'm not interested in.