I've tried to skim through the many posts of these threads looking for problems of user friendliness of talk.maemo.org would rely. Am I missing something or single sign-on is the only measurable problem beyond human psychology reported here?
If you are going with the bumping-is-OK approach you should also give the TS (topicstarter) certain responsibilities. The first post is very important, and if it is bad (e.g. speculative) this yields a bad thread without allowing to create another one. The TS should also not be able to remove his post thereby deleting the whole thread. Instead in the case TS wants FP (first post) to be removed she should contact a moderator who can then transfer relevant information into whatever becomes then the FP. Because you are going to reuse a thread, the FP should be updateable by moderators reflecting the current state of affairs. Many people will not read the whole thread, instead only reading the first few posts. If the FP is a summary of the whole thread this improves forum quality by huge leaps. However, this also requires good moderators; both pragmatic and aiming for informative, as well as putting time and effort in summarizing. Compare it to a post containing a howto. You'd update that too as soon as there is updates for it.
While you want a lot of high quality posts a person who starts a topic should write their post very well. Research has shown people only read the first few posts in a result (e.g. on Google search engine). Hardly anyone reads more than the first page, and most people only look at the first results. The first post (and the first replies to the first post) are therefore read very often compared to the other replies. How can the first post be written well? In order to improve the quality of the forum this is something which has to be discussed and outlined. Here are my suggestions: First of all, on the Apps forum the first post could contain a description what the program is, what it does, whether it is available for the NIT (official or by Nokia). An example where this goes wrong is the Rapier thread. I cannot know what this thread is about by reading the first posts. The topic starter didn't put any time or energy in a descriptive post. Second, in the case of long threads, the first post can be updated every now and then to contain a summary. This requires updates from the topic starter (and/or a moderator). An example where this is useful is the Data Plan post. Because you're going to differentiate between technical inclined users and beginners it might now be possible to start with some guidelines and regulations like this provided they're well thought out before implemented. Some other ideas were also outlined in the Internet Tablet Scene thread. Addendum: post explains how GoT (Gathering of Tweakers) deals with bitrot, FAQ, topic starter/first post Here are 2 offsite examples of how a first post can be made (in Dutch though although the bigger picture is probably still understandable): Topic about N82 (very good first post) Topic about LG KB620 (ok first post; user copy/pasted, but at least provided some information & picture) Cheers,