JIM, Ors? Have you ever tried the "View newest messages", "View messages for the past XX hours", "View unread messages from your last visit", "View new answers to your messages" buttons on those forums with many Forum categories? That's MUCH more convenient than browsing the categories manually. The primary benefit of the multiple-themed forums is automatic information sorting and categorization, so it's easier to find something from the past discussions, it's more organizing for the posters of new subjects, and also allows to ignore some sorts of discussions one may dislike.

Just imagine that you came to your local Grocery store and found that all of their goodies are now in one (Ok, two sided) huge 300 feet long pile, and sorted only by the expiration date