Why does it have to be different if you can't think of anything better? Most of this sites format is copy-pasted from DDO and the parts that are different are sometimes worse (such as the PMs). If some way of doing things works why not stick with it?
I
can think of something better but it would take time to implement and especially design, because I am pathetic at designing stuff. The general idea is similar but it's not exactly copy pasted, we have lots of things that are either built on top of what DDO has or are simply different. But frankly, that's what most people do, you just take some idea and improve it. PMs are possibly worse, yes, but only at some aspects and that's because I wanted eventually to use a paid solution ( say Twilio ) for the chat system that provides everything we could possibly need, group chats, image attachments and etc but I can't afford it because, well, I can't even cover my hosting expenses, leave alone the paid chat systems or phone number verifications to prevent multi accounts and stuff.
Anyway, I have been working on another feature, it's not exactly something exciting but it's new and it could help to kill time once in a while. After I finish it, I will have a cycle of bug fixes and small improvements and then I will get back to this big issues thingie, so we'll see what can be done :)