It may be just me, but keep the same design theme. It's been consistent forever and with other sites constantly rebranding and redesigning, the old school internet look stands out compared to the other sites.
The U/X is probably the best it's been organized.
I would look into creating an AI moderator bot (ie: like Reddit) so if there are threads that go off topic, they can automatically be moved to a new thread dedicated to that topic. If a poster needs to go into purgatory, the AI moderator bot could also handle that too. This is nothing against the current moderators, they just have a lot to review so this could help take stuff off their plate.
Speaking of AI, I would definitely have someone proofread what the young writers are publishing lol I know translating transcripts are boring, but giving it a twice over before publishing could catch mistakes and fix them.
I may have missed these, but taking the podcasts or YT videos, publishing them in a separate thread here so we could talk about them here and not on YT.
I wouldn't touch the ads. If people are still complaining about the ads in 2026, then get off the internet or pay for the subscription lol
Also, I'd take a poll to see if users want the "Latest Stuff" feature to be solely UM related threads and not include the OT stuff (ie: Post COVID World, Geopolitcs, etc.) I feel like most of us come here for UM stuff more than the other topics. Have users go the extra step to see the OT threads, and not solely UM stuff.
Lastly, if you get the merch shop up and running, you can integrate it into this site and have the 'Latest Products' or 'Best Sellers' section. For all the folks who hate the Adidas fan gear (myself included), it provides a different e-comm to get UM specific stuff from.
I didn't think I'd write a whole op-ed, my bad,
But that's what happens when you do this for a living lol
