Oh no it isn't, unfortunately, and you've hit the nail right on the head there.

This is not (only) the unruly mob of clueless newcomers swamping the forums after a mildly successful new device hits the market, and getting on the old-timers' nerves.

We already saw that on ITT when the N810 came out, and survived. How ? Mostly because the core hackers sat tight, and there was still a lot of good content around, even if you had to look for it. It was also a time of doubt (yes, already) about Nokia and the future of Maemo, but community Nokians (qgil et al) stepped in and gave a hand.

What we're seeing here is yet more times of doubt, about the future of the N900, Maemo, Harmattan, Meego and whatnot.

Only this time the community Nokians are silent (or busy over at Meego.com), and increasing numbers of core community members are nowhere to be seen. Maybe finally disheartened by yet another round of fine hardware with eternally unfinished software, corporate turnarounds and broken promises. Or maybe they just don't know what to think (and post) any more.

I don't disagree with Flandry's proposal at all, after all it's just basic forum management like everywhere else, even if we didn't really need it before. However I don't believe it will do much good: if the forums are drowning in drivel it's mostly because there aren't enough people left with interesting things to say.

And that's not the newbies' fault.