I had been thinking the same thing. Shall we give it a go? Another solution that I have seen used on some boards is to give the forum in question a "linear 'any topic goes' thread". This is just one thread among the many in the forum, so it doesn't clog the forum by having multiple posts on "off topic" subjects, and it can be stickied at the top. In this sort of thread, there is not one OP of the thread, but anyone can post in the thread on whatever topic they want. It's like a continuous conversation and no topic or post is turned away. And it only takes up one thread. You can jump in and catch the conversation for that day, or read back several days to catch the pulse of the forum. It is really nice for when you have something you would like to post about but don't think it merits its own thread, or you feel too shy to make a separate thread for it. If it gets too long and starts slowing forum function down, it can be unstickied anarchived or locked and a new linear thread started. It has really worked well on these other boards I've been on.