Well, time for me to make a contribution here now, I think.

Having checked through all the current postings, if I had to pick one that summarized my current feelings it would be belM's. The apple is well and truly shiny as far as I'm concerned! All the other positive comments about the membership and "constitution" of the Board also resonate strongly. I'd probably be inclined to take them further, though...

My current enthusiasm feels pretty boundless - something of which you've probably all become well aware ! I'm eternally grateful to Anna for reeling me in here; But what's got me well and truly hooked is the overall warmth, sense of humour, tolerance and intelligence of the entire community. This means you !

Having implied that everything's right in this little coral reef just as it is, I think basic structure is always a good thing. And indeed, the "best practice" suggestions passed on by Jo, enhanced by Bridget's guidelines, provide just that. And just the right amount, too. Yes, getting the balance right is crucial - although given shanks' very pertinent point about our limited means of control, we have to trust in the balance being achieved by nature as much as (individual) nurture. If there isn't a natural tendency for tsuwm's clowns and disciplinarians to balance up, there ain't a lot we can do about it. The kind of tolerance expressed by shanks and mav remains fundamental, being open to refreshing new influences and keeping the see sawing.

Exit Stage Left Field.
Goes off and makes a cup of coffee...

On to volume.
Well obviously volume per se isn't a problem; being unable to find relevant threads/posts may be.
Again, our control is limited - we don't have any means of transferring sub-threads to the top level or in any way physically partitioning threads. wsieber's idea of deleting posts of a certain age appealed to me at first, but then, I thought, there may be particularly useful/entertaining threads that we are all loath to lose. In which case, we need some sort of controlled thread "directory" management. But any form of directory management is off the cards unless we get Anu to do a major rewrite, and also appoint administrator posts etc. A no-no really.

What we're left with is more best practice, really. It certainly helps re-titling postings once a sub-thread has clearly established itself. Yes, I know this happens more or less instantaneously in some cases, or you only realise a few postings down the line - but so what? The change of title alerts others to a sub-thread, and if they want to follow it back to source, they can do so regardless of title.

We can set up links within postings; has anyone tried saving the URL (Address at the top of your browser) for a particular thread or posting, then sticking that in as a link in another posting? If that works we can provide easy links to other relevant threads, which would be good.

The only other suggestion I can make is that fish like myself who haven't yet explored the depths of AWAD's back pages should do so, and add appropriate comments. This would effectively recycle () interesting old threads, putting them towards the top of the summary lists.
If they're in descending date order, that is.
Would this be a good thing??

That's an essay more than a posting! Sorry for the eye-strain. But hope it helps.

In the words of a Scot:

Here's to us
W'o's like us?
Damn few
And they're all deed!

Cheers.