Wakaba is perl + db. Free hosting doesn't have perl (that's the rule, not the exception), and there's not enough traffic to get the benefits of an sql database. I'm pretty convinced php + flatfile is the way to go, just there's a dearth of scripts. There's 95chan's edits of futallaby, though i havn't heard much about it. Is there anything else out there?
Wrt/stickies: Stickies have their place. Currently there's a notice at the top of the page with basic details and recent news and so forth, but it looks kind of like a post anyways. Why not make it a[mod-editable and locked] sticky?