Thanks for your opinion. I originally pulled the tables 100% because my first version had the forum centered at 600pixels wide and I wanted to get the most space out of those 600 pixels. So I pulled out the moderator column and the ratings colum and all the margins.
I haven't changed it back because I have a couple members who even now are saying the text area isn't big enough with the table on the left side. They must be viewing the site at 640X480 or something.