If we do blogs first and then the UI second, when we redo the UI we'll have to pretty much redo the blogs as well. Since the javascript, layout, etc. will all be changing.
If we were to do the UI first, then when we do the blogs we'll already have the new javascript libraries in place, the layout will be settled upon, etc. So, this would be the quickest overall method since there would be no backtracking.
IMO, updating the UI before adding blogs is the most efficient/productive development path for advancing UBBThreads in it's core competency(excellent community forum software solution).
There are many blog/cms solutions out there with integrated forums. One problem with these solutions, forums are feature deficient in comparison to UBBThreads. Unfortunately, member management integration does not easily exist between popular CMS packages and UBBThreads. It makes more sense to start with an open source CMS like Wordpress and create a module to integrate member management between WP and Ubbthreads.
