Here’s a first take on a layout I’d much prefer:
http://i.imgur.com/tLX4lvD.png
- I think you’ll rarely, if ever, use the pagination from the forum index. This is an in-topic sort of operation. So, I removed it.
- It’s still important to give an idea of how crowded a topic is, so I show the # of the last reply which indicates how many replies there are in total in the topic.
- The “reply #” button would take you to the last reply of the topic. Oftentimes you’ve already visited the topic before, so you know what the topic is about already and you just want to skip to the last reply/page.
- I’ve made a 2-part division between {topic title}, {topic author}, {topic category} and {reply link}, {freshness}, {reply author}.
- At the bottom of each of the example sites is a lightweight example, excluding authors to conserve space.
Update to your update: No the fluid width itself is not a problem. I just think you could display the forum data in a more balanced and informative way than what you’re currently doing.