I have to say I find the clean and basic look and feel of this site very old school and charming which makes it a less intimidating place for people to post. I also think it helps that the operator is not some uber experienced and elitist forum guru but a regular enthusiast like the rest of us.
Saying that though, if this becomes THE NC10 forum on the internet then a few things, like thread subscribes, private messages etc should be implemented but then again there are websites with massive communities with boards even more old school and less user friendly than this one!