Squeezing punbb forum to fit beside the sidepanel of my wordexpress

I love punbb forum and it has integrated so nicely with my wordpress blog. I have adjusted the forum width so that it sits alongside the blog sidepanel (so we can watch vids etc while we are using the forum).

Doing this has naturally resulted in the forum user/member panel and the post panel being nearly the same size. I want to know if there is a way that I can dispense with the user panel altogether and incorporate the space it takes up into the post space.

And then could I customize the post to have the username/info top left of the post - like this

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Isla Sands
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Registered 888888
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And here is my post, directly underneath........blah blah etc...

Thus availing myself of a lot more space for posting. I am a complete noobie, so if my question seems duh - please forgive!