There is a trick I've seen used on other forums to validate people's minecraft accounts. This would be useful for checking that people are actually who they say that they are on the forum. When users go to make an account on the forum they are directed to connect to a special minecraft server that only serves to give them a verification code. This verification code then let's them complete the registration process for the forum.
I just thought that something like this would be useful, especially if further website integration with the server is desired in the future.