I'll leave the quibbles on details to others but all I can say is of all the sites of this type I have looked at the overall look and feel of SSC is by far the best.

The design of the question and answer threads which are the bedrock of the site is clear and concise and easy to follow, so I really don't see a need to move too far from what we have now.

I am not a designer so maybe I just don't have the ability to imagine improvements, but I would vote for evolution rather than revolution.