Just throwing this as an idea since i heard derek was making changes/maintenance to the boards:
why not have three layers of categories in the boards; the first layer being the one we see when we first get on, then a list of subcategories on the subject, then the actual topics/threads. an obvious example for all of the game categories would be:
{Game Title}
New players help/discussion (so new people dont get in the way of pros)
Rules questions (for things like the vindicator thread)
Game Planning (to set up games)
bitz/modeling help (for people who need a weapon bit or model etc)
List help (to get people who already play to get help, new players use new players to do this)
misc discussions (anything else)
then possibly put the green arrows just in the second layer, so that people who want to be organised or ignore certain threads have a heads up about what type of thread it is.
for a better example:
>Warhammer 40k
new players
> new post today by skavenknight in Starting game, playing tyranids
rules
no new posts since last visit
bitz
> need meltaguns for guardsmen
so does anyone like this idea? i figure its not such a big change as it is an orginization of threads by type instead of just by what got looked at most recently. this would make it so veterans dont get upset over new people like me asking 50 bazillion questions and new players arent intimidated by discussions over their head. its just a suggestion, not an attack on the boards, which are fine the way they are. this would just encourage new people to play/post more freely and for veterans to bypass the new player threads to talk about their things (like say, the mega battle, bigger games, tournaments and painting/conversions). ont that matter a thread area for new battlegrounds events like encounters doubles tournaments, and big release parties would be a good idea to promote them.