A few new features come to mind:
1. Safe-haven forums where those of a like mind may fellowship and discuss items without intrusion by those that disagree with the purposes of this sort of forum. For example: Open-Theists Only, MAD Only, Reformed Only, Catholic Only, etc.
2. Ask Five Questions forum. Members post here five questions that are directed to any other member. The targeted member has three days to respond to all five questions. The thread is closed afterwards whether or not a response was received.
3. Somewhat similarly, a Face the Board thread. Members willing to be subjected to the third degree, if you will, post therein stating their willingness to answer any questions posed (within reasonable bounds of privacy and modesty). Questions are then directed towards them by anyone. Questions can be quite benign, such as, "what is your favorite color", to more pointed. The thread is closed after 1000 posts have been made. Thus, there would be thread titles as follows in this forum: FTB - AMR; FTB - Town Heretic; FTB - Knight, etc. Once the 1000 post limit reached a new thread, if needed, would be started, e.g., FTB - Knight (2), and so on. One downside I have seen used in this type of forum is that those who seek to increase post counts love it way too much, as it becomes their sole reason to participate in the forum: to ask the same questions in round-robin fashion to all who have started the thread.
4. Ask a Chaplain forum. Initially Chaplains are appointed by management. Later other chaplains weigh in with management on future Chaplain appointments. Must be ordained and provide documentary proof from a church, not from one of the many internet groups that hand out ordination certificates to anyone. All posts therein are moderated and anonymized. No user name appears for the original poster. Only the original poster and appointed Chaplains, whose posts are not anonymized, are allowed to respond in threads created. The first Chaplain responding usually owns the entire conversation with the original poster. Other Chaplains do not weigh in unless asked by the original poster or by the first responding Chaplain. This suggestion has a complication I have noted on another site where I am serving as a Chaplain in a similarly styled forum. The posts are usually from sock accounts as regular members are often suspicious of just how much anonymity is provided.
5. Moderate rep posts. There should be no free ride for those that want to end-run the posting rules of proper behavior. Persons receiving rep posts that are objectionable should be able to post them to the Woodshed for actioning. Of course, this would be a nice feature only paid subscribers would enjoy.
6. Men Only and Women Only Forums.
AMR