Re: Email subscription
I agree that email notification is really needed.
In the meantime, I have added a Feedblitz signup box to my front page. The user enters their email address, so it is more user friendly, i.e. the concept of signing up with your email address is already familiar to most. Also, once they go through setup at the Feedblitz site, Feedblitz sends them emails when anything on my forum is updated.
Granted, that’s not the same thing as email notification, but at least it is close.