I've been on a number of forums, and I've often posted only to the Off-Topic forum because it seems to be viewed and 'open' enough for discussions rather than more targeted, narrow question-answer topics that leave less room for discussion.

One of the broadest, most useful forums that I belong to is MakeUseOf.com, and they have one of the most useful "Ask" sections I've ever seen for technology related topics. They have professional, company moderators that view, edit, reword and clarify if necessary, all posts before they are published. There is a wait time for this between the time you post and the time you can view your post.

When entering the ASK section, each user sees ALL posts - regardless of category, so interested parties can view the equivalent of 'all forums' from clicking on one bookmark, without the need to subscribe or do any sort of active filtering.

What keeps this website useful is the moderators and the TAGS. Each question, as part of the moderator review, is TAGGED to one or more consistent categories that reflects the areas it touches upon. Each single question may of course have MULTIPLE tags, and each tag is actually a link that users can click if they'd like to view only questions on a particular topic.

http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/

I think this type of tagging would be useful in the PG forums, but then again I'm not sure UBB threads allows it. If tags could be implemented across forums, while preserving the existing structure, that could also be useful for those looking for targeted information.

Also - the MakeUseOf.com Ask forum is quite different in the amount of active maintenance required, and the lag between posting and viewing your topic : ) But perhaps some of their procedures might be incorporated at some level.

By the way, in addition to the MakeUseOf Ask section, the main site is comprised of articles written on how to get the most out of the internet via the free or low-cost internet web-based tools and utilities. The articles always open explaining the need for the tool, and 'selling it' as "You could really use this because...". The articles are also tagged, and as in the Ask section, one can search all articles having particular tags by clicking on the TAG name link. This would also lend itself to what goes on here in the Forum post section.

Were I ever to design a website, I particularly like the MakeUseOf format. Has anyone been on other websites/forums where they've found design particularly useful and navigable ?