It's not that old its like two years now since it started. I'm not sure what could be done to improve that though, the author is right next to the tag...

Bolding the username or slightly increasing its size over the rest of the text in that line would be a start...

I kinda like the way they are now, it shows some of the profile while keeping the site in the background to make it sort of a pop-up look.

Well, I like the lightbox thing too, I just think it needs a little more work to give it some individuality. A good example is Twitter's user lightboxes. Here's an example:

Like the user lightboxes on this site, Twitter's user lightbox has all the right elements. A striking and prominent username and biography at the top, with the appropriate follow buttons and a sample from their contributions to the site underneath. All the elements are here in the Hubski profile as well, but it just needs a couple of tweaks. Here's my suggestion (I'm using the snow colour scheme because the dark one has very poor contrast for me, but this can be applied to other designs too):

I haven't removed anything from the page, just moved things around a bit.

Assuming they are based with the best things at the top, I would recommend keeping it that way, I personally would rather see a users best work as opposed to their newest.

It's not quite what I meant, but the more I look at it, the more I think it's a bad idea anyway, so disregard that.