I sent this to the admins via email a short time ago.  I thought I'd post it in here so others can chime in.  This email is about the most critical issues with the site.  There are plenty of other things we'd all like to see, but these are what I believe are the most essential fixes currently required.  Also, these fixes are things that don't require vast amounts of time and effort to deal with.  Some things, like the territory picking order, are serious considerations, but we can work around them at present, and they're fairly substantial changes to the game code.  Anyway, here's what I wrote:

I've been trying to get another tournament going.  This time a double
tournament on the Indian Ocean map.  However, we attempted to create
private games in which players are allowed to pick teams, yet when
players join using the assigned game ID and password, they are
automatically put on a random team.

It seems like this should be an easy fix.  Instead of having the game
id automatically join you to a game, it should simply send you to the
Game Info screen.  That is where players usually are given the option
to join one team or the other.  An added bonus of this implementation
is it would prevent high level players from sending invites to brand
new players and tricking them into joining difficult games that they
are almost certain to lose.  By going to the game info screen, they
would have a chance to see who else is in the game and what the game
settings are before registering for it.

Some other features that I think are of critical importance:
1) Streamline the game creation process.  Instead of forcing everyone
to go through 4 different screens with a whole bunch of information,
put the important settings (map name, number of players, and
team/free-for-all) one one page.  Underneath that, there would be a
list of the default settings for the game type in text form.  Instead
of offering drop down options for all of these, include links to
customize certain categories of settings.  e.g. "Customize forces
layout" would give you the Nation Picking Type, Starting Forces, and
Preset and Capital factory settings; "Customize victory conditions"
would allow you to change the victory conditions and whether or not
loss of a capital eliminates you; "Customize game speed and length"
would let you change the max turns, max time, and turn speed.  This
would prevent a huge number of the headaches surrounding incorrectly
created A&A games and would simplify things a great deal.  I
consider myself a pretty advanced player and someone with a great deal
of computer skills and I find the interface confusing.  You need
something a lot smoother if you want to attract and keep more people.

2) Allow people to pick their country in A&A games.  At the very
least allow them to pick team A or team B (Axis or Allies) as a short
term solution.  In the long run people need to be completely free to
pick their side.

3) In team games, when your teammate drops, you should be given full
control of his units and income, but it should be kept separate from
yours.  All your teammates forces and money should be treated as a
separate player, but as a separate player you control.  One way to
implement this would be to not give you immediate control of his units
and money.  You would take your turn as normal but would receive a
message in your inbox that you are getting control of his units.  A
similar message should be automatically posted in game chat for all to
see.  Once you complete your turn and submit it, the game would act as
though you were instead the teammate.  The screen would reset and you
would now have access only to your ally's money and units.  Once you
submit a turn for him (or the timer expires) the game will switch your
control back to your original forces.

4) Clarify which territories ships belong to in the Standard World
map.  This could be done by having the pop-up box for the territory
list all the units accompanying it.  In addition, the naval units in
the Gulf of Mexico sea zone are currently owned by both Texas and
Eastern US.  If you pick EUS, you get those naval units until someone
else picks Texas, then those units switch to that person's side.

5) The forums desperately need a facelift.  I realize you said you
wanted more functionality than you saw in some of the commercial forum
software and you want to write your own.  I would suggest that that is
a very bad idea.  There are too many issues with the game itself right
now for you to spend all your time working on the forums, and you
really don't need to reinvent the wheel.  Full-featured forums won't
attract people to the site.  Solid gameplay will.  That said, forums
with a few normal forum type features will make this site much more
enjoyable.  I'd encourage you to find a cheap/free forum package as a
temporary fix.  That would allow you to get some of the gameplay issues
worked out before you go back and try add all kinds of bells and
whistles to your own forum implementation.  As a start we need the
ability to quote other people, edit our posts even after someone has
replied to them (currently only the thread creator can edit his post
once there is a reply), properly functioning rich text (I can't get
bold and italics to work properly), and consistent ordering of the
posts.  New replies should always be at the very bottom, not directly
underneath whichever post you reply to!

6) Allow private messages to go to more than one person at a time.  If
I create a private mutliplayer game, I currently have to copy the same
text into 4+ different messages to notify everyone.  I should be able
to enter in multiple names on a single message and have it go to
everyone.  (I think most of the halfway decent forum software packages
include private messaging that would allow this.)

7) Clarify how multiplayer combat works.  We are all utterly confused
at how casualties are allocated when multiple sides engage in a
battle.  It's become clear that two attackers hitting the same
territory will sometimes (usually?) hit each other.  How are hits
assigned?  As a corollary, we would like to know how combat works when
allies are helping defend a territory.  Ideally, all allies should
defend together as a single force, and casualties should be assigned
based on unit value regardless of the unit owner.  US fighters should
be able to land in Russia in A&A games without expecting to be the
first unit destroyed the next time Germany attacks.

I think those are the biggest outstanding issues right now.  I don't
think any of them are especially difficult fixes, but they will make a
HUGE difference in the quality of the site.  I think most of the people
here would agree that taking care of these should be a much higher
priority than new maps or other cutesy features.  These are issues that
affect our ability to play games and otherwise enjoy the current
functionality on this site.  We don't need more features when the
current ones aren't fully operational.

Regardless of all this, I do want to thank you for your work on this
site.  I'm presuming that this is a hobby in addition to your normal
jobs and family life, meaning that you only have limited time to spend
on here.  I can fully appreciate those considerations.  Still, it would
be nice to have some more regular feedback from the admins.  It is easy
to feel like the site is being set adrift when admins almost never post
in the forums and issues go unresolved for months on end (Woodruff is a
good example of someone that left because of the perceived neglect).

I've seen other game sites come and go.  One of the most recent ones
was GoCrossCampus.  They became extremely popular and even got
mentioned in newspapers and on NPR!  Yet less than a year later, the
site is no longer operational.  At its peak the admins were reasonably
active.  They would post every couple days or so and would quickly
respond to issues.  As they started neglecting the site, people started
creating hordes of multis and took advantage of the neglect.  Even good
honest players felt like they had to engage in the same sort of cheats
just to be able to compete.  Things fell apart very quickly after
that.  There are other sites that have done far better (ConquerClub for
example).  They don't always have the flashiest implementations and the
cutest features.  What they have works really well though, and the
people running the sites are accessible and responsive.  I would really
like this site to be successful, and I want to do what I can to help. 
Hopefully this will be useful to you.

Jeremy "Doc" Brown