This, to me, is important.
After reading over the last few days how many, many people were surprised at the changes brought in this week, it would be useful to have a banner on home pages--with links--that tells people about where to find info about what's coming up. This would look like the "closed" banner info that was shown on people's home pages during the changeover when the game was down on Thursday, May 3rd; i.e., not the closed sign, but the red banner that directed people to the forum post.
Given that there's no guarantee that people will read the forums or participate in global chat, I think it's important that individual players be directed to official information about upcoming shifts. The one thing everyone has in common is their home page, from which they enter the world. Let's use this as the medium through which info is communicated, even if it directs them to a forum thread.
This way, everyone has the opportunity to be on the same page. If it's in their face and they don't click the link, their bad. But in this way, TS can disseminate info to all players, easily. And we'll all have the opportunity to have the same info about what's coming next.
ETA: This is extra-important, given that for some people, this is the first MMO they've ever played. They might not even realise that forums or global exist. This is a special game with an unconventional player base. Let's do our best to welcome the new MMO players among us, yeh? :)