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I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who was scratching his head when Mat stated above that the 'budget' for changes was closer to $10K than $1M.
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I think they could do a great to of good on this site without throwing a ton of money at the problem. Most of the suggestions here are pretty cheap to implement.
1) Host blogs
2) Host a hand converter
3) Host a database of converted hands
4) Give away some stuff for whatever
All of these are cheap.
Blogging software is free, so that's just an issue of hosting space. Hell, they could even
use Blogger software and host it there while maintaining the twoplustwo url.
A hand converter would obviously require programming, but I'm sure they could arrange for it to be done free by willing posters since that's how it was done for such a long time. The space to host that program is negligible based on the estimated file sizes I've read.
An associated database would require some hosting space but it's just text, so the files are very small. The programming associated with actually saving hte converted hand files seems to be very basic and not something that would cost much to have developed, if that was even necessary.
Finally, creating some more goodwill and site loyalty by giving away books or whatever seems like a great deal. Don't use those crappy polos though.
Some of the other suggestions would requite a little more funding:
1) Alter search to avoid php and make RSS feeds available
2) Create a revenue sharing market place for videos, coaching, etc.
Both of these would require programming more complex than simple scripts to parse hand histories, but I think it would be a mischaracterization to call either "expensive" in the context of things. I was chatting with Diablo the other night and he mentioned a number (which I'll leave it up to him to share if he feels like it) that I felt was probably too high. To be clear, he knows a hell of a lot more about this than me. That being said, I think it's clear that at least some of these changes could be implemented for very little money, and those changes would provide significant improvements to the site.
I'm not sure what Mat's commitments outside of 2+2 are, but the first four ideas certainly seem like something that one guy could manage. The later two might require something along the lines of a consultant. Anyway, my point is just that I don't think the limiting factor here should be funding.