Looks good! So here my advaices.
The links that point the authors home pages maybe it will be better if they are in the same style as in to the forums index?
And yes it will be better to remove the second sub Mascot as you pointed and to expand the 'Welcome' box to fit the left and right sight of the screen.
My other advices are in to the picture below.
http://epodbot.bots-united.com/bunew.JPG