I am a little bit confused. Isn't 'portal' just a catch word? I dont see that much of a difference between so called portal sites and the UBB software itself (with a few hacks).
The one thing I see that would make a true portal site would be incorporaton of content from other locations:
Search Engine
Movie Listings
Weather Reports
Most of the things I see here referred to as portal ideas seem more like community ideas. Is there thought to trying to build a Yahoo out of UBB or am I just confused?