Fun episode. I knew that bitcointalk was hacked in its very early days, but did not know the harm was mostly harmless vandalism (although the hacker could have stolen sensitive information without detection).

I understand the reason the new forum software has not been implemented is in large part due to security concerns. In the past, hacking the forum was very valuable due to the large amount of business conducted on the forum. This is less true today, so it may be possible that the security bounties may outweigh the amount that could be stolen via hacking the forum. Perhaps the security of the new forum software could be validated by offering security bounties on the new forum software for a ~year, and waiting for reports.