I think the lack of comments is a direct result of layout changes. If the default location of the random gallery image(s) changed to an area of the page that didn't require scrolling or resizing to reach, click-through and comment rates might be much higher.
On the new site, the only thing I see when I first browse to Amiga.org is the last ten active threads. (That's with Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari on Windows at 1920x1200, default system and browser font settings.)
On the old site, the latest posts, the first couple news articles, and a random gallery image were all visible without resizing.