A couple of months ago I searched the web to find a (free) forum system that was easy to understand for inexperienced computer users. I couldn't find a single one, noone even tried working in that direction. Every single forum system either tried to have as many functions as possible, be easy to install (for the admin) or look as flashy as possible. For a newbie user none of these three ways are of any use.
A simple interface for newbies would give threads a huge advantage IMHO.
And I'm not the one to do it, since I'm too much of a techie. But as you say, removing all extra functions will probably help a long way. Also easy to understand descriptions everywhere would probably be good.
