Well, if it's a matter of changing the underlying code, I see why it's not happening. Thanks for letting me know.

For me, it has never been a matter of Searching (as in results you get from entering terms in the Search Box) but about New Posts. What you're saying I can do by searching within a Software parent has always been possible through Advanced Search. The problem is that you can't search for a null field in Advanced Posts.

Hence, without the requested change (Solution #1) being made, what I would have to do to see all New Posts without drowning in N900/Maemo5 posts, is:

Open each Category in which I'm interested, one-by-one, so as to see all the New Posts in each such category.

I can't actually make any use of "Parent Categories" for finding new posts either, since, for example, if I click on Software, I'm not shown any posts at all, just subcategory titles.

This means that to review new posts comprehensively, in the categories I care about, without drowning in N900/Maemo5/OffTopic threads, I have to independently, one-at-a-time open:

General
Brainstorm
Community
Applications
Multimedia
Design
OS2008 / Maemo 4 / Chinook - Diablo
Development
Alternatives
Nokia N810
Nokia N800
Nokia 770
Accessories
and Competitors.

Additionally, I have to keep track of the last time I looked at the Category since (without the functionality built into New Posts) there is nothing that will announce, "The threads below have not been updated since your last visit but still contain unread posts."

It's a big pain in the neck, and will probably mean I won't be using the forum much anymore ... or rather, it means I'll use it when I know what I need and can search for my answer or post a question about it; but I won't be generally keeping up with the platform and I won't be scanning the forum to help other users who have problems.

I've liked providing that service -- helping people who have problems for which I have answers -- but I can only provide it to people who are using the older hardware and software; and I'm not going to wade through all the N900 posts to find those occasional N8x0 posts where I may be helpful.

If you could have implemented filterable New Posts, I'd stick around to be helpful. But if you can't because of coding issues, then you can't. I believe lots of other N8x0 people have left because of this problem. The forum can still have limited utility for N8x0/770 users, but it's pretty much the end of it as a community; I believe it could have been saved if New Posts could have been filtered.