I follow the bboards via email alerts as well. I agree that additional information would be useful, but part of the problem is that different people have different preferences. For example, I know a number of people who don't like to have the forum name in the subject line, while I think it is great.
The best solution that I see, given the capabilities of ACS, is to allow people to choose their own formatting. There would be a default format, but users would have the ability to customize it for their alerts. It doesn't even need to be all that complex - just some toggle buttons like "I want the forum name in the subject line - yes, no".
I just entered this as a feature request into SDM. http://www.arsdigita.com/sdm/one-ticket?ticket%5fid=11861
p.s. In the near future, I ask that the OpenACS bboards add the poster's name and email address to the mail like you get on the aD bboards. Without that, you have no idea who posted the message without visiting the thread.
