I'm a fan of the buttons on the bottom. Cleans up the side, and gives me a reason to look there--I didn't know what the blinking green icon was before this conversation.
>; )
Most of the boards I frequent use phpbb2, in which the various email/profile/PM buttons are all arrayed at the bottom--seems to work well.
Another option for reducing the clutter at the left.
I do see what you're talking about. And I suppose I don't use the PM buttons very often. It's just a neat way of incorporating more methods of communication into the community.
The size isn't much of a problem for me, as I've got a decent screen res and I don't mind scrolling through short...
Rise of the Empire.
The trilogies have been following the title-duality rather well. Circle of the Force and Creeping Doom are too general/abstract [[not to mention the second one being a spell from NWN...]], and Revenge of the Sith is too much like RotJ.