<< What if they got rid of the thread icons (the !, ?, thumbs up, etc) in favor of more emoticons? Kind of a swap out. >>
I like those thread icons, they give you a nice way of glancing through the topics and seeing which type you'd like to read. Yes, not everyone is using them, but that's because the option to use them is below the "reply to thread" button. If it were placed above, more people would use it