With the repeated migrations from that other place, and now from that other other place, there have been a lot of asylums set up to help people find each other again.

The trick is finding those asylums in the first place.

Would there be any chance of either getting a box on the welcome page with a list of directory asylums (I have no idea how many there are by now, but I know of at least half a dozen so far), or adding a specific "interest tag" (such as "directory") so that they would be searchable, and then posting that search tag on the front page so that everyone coming in knows about it?

My suggestion is to add 'Transmogrified' as one of the supported S2 styles.

The creator's community is here, plus all the necessary information:
http://community.livejournal.com/transmogrified1/2005/05/09/

1. Notifcation on the main site when you log in that says if you have comments somewhere.
2. Notifcation on the main site when you have a PM.
2a. Emails when you get a PM

A few:

1. An option where you can actually see the icon you select when you are posting a comment without having to browse through a pop up.

Everything else has pretty much been mentioned from what I can see:

2. A site scheme with a white background, something simple.
3. The notifications.
4. Directory searches.
5. emailing of invites.

Just raising a hand to agree with those!