I like everything just the way it is because it has a very nice balance.
We all welcome new members and us older members all know each-other and help everyone out. We only have the occasional thread that goes off topic and gets crazy but that dealt with correctly unlike the Mods on the NAMless site.
I just wish the site was a little faster to load sometimes.
I'm pretty good with the site overall, though maybe the Library section could be a little more prominent for newcomers. It took me a long time to understand that the Library contained How To information.
We did that on a much bigger site I was involved in way back when; unfortunately it led to a bunch of begging and bickering among people who weren't in the "special" section, so eventually we had to open it up.
Interesting. Have they given up over there? Have the moderators finally figured out they're being used unmercifully by IB to promote the brand? I didn't think they were that smart, but maybe I was wrong.
We need to invite that Trenster dude over here. Actually, I did. Give him a warm welcome if he shows.
To help with the chafe between "what's the best oil" threads and real productive tech threads you could consider a form of tiered access.
I used to be part of the DSS hacking scene and one of the largest sites was the Pirates Den.
There were some areas with restricted access, so new members could get the picture and post all their "how do I get free HBO" or "why is my screen black" threads but didn't get to see or post in the tech section. Once sufficient time and or post count passed, or with a staff or member recommendation, they could see but not post in the tech threads. Only the people actually writing code could post there.
This worked pretty well to enable the folks actually testing to share and collaborate without their conversations being derailed with n00b questions that had already been asked and answered a million times.
I just thought of something that I would like to see added (and I'm not sure of the problems involved) is a "chat" room. I think it would go over well here...
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