Seems to be a new bug as it's not mentioned in the docs, but if you enable headlines then your forum removes the Active Topics Stuff from public display.
So you have 'No Active Topics' aside from SSI output, you'll probably need to have an SSI only file - which would solve a lot of problems for private customisation as well =). http://www.ispreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/ubb2/ultimatebb.cgi (test forum)
Also the text size formatting in the CP doesn't effect the output.
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