Personal Finance.
With the young age tilt of the SDMB, as I stare retirement in the face, I wish there had been a community like this for guidance and encouragement when I was starting out. Seems that many are figuring out the Why and When of many financial issues way too late in life.
(Yes, there are many Finance and investing sites, but they seem to focus on How type questions)
Hmm. No, I won’t hijack this thread. But all this is an absolutely key concept in what I’m working on.
I don’t think it’s worth a whole SDMB forum, though. It fits comfortably into what’s already here.
Y’know, it occurs to me that the Doper Ghods never listen to this prattle. Come the revolution…
Wide World of Crime!
An anonymous forum, where you can say whatever you want without facing any consequences.
Oooh! :eek:
A forum where people can reasonably, rationally and honestly debate hot and not-so-hot topics of the day…
I’m loving some of these! I’ll second the suggestions below.
A redundant forum for threads that would be equally well-placed in other forums
I was going to say “FUN WITH FARTS” or something similar. For all of us peurile, poo humor types. Huh, maybe just “THE BATHROOM”.
I’d vote for both of these. We play Mafia sometimes on my forum and having a separate subforum for it makes it much easier: you can have separate threads for each day and even give regular users limited mod powers in just that forum so they can manage games. Other games and discussions that tend to sprawl could similarly benefit from their own subforum.
And having a forum to share photos and videos would be nice. I especially like seeing other people’s amateur photography, it gives a window into other people’s lives and travels. (Plus, some people are damn good photographers, at least compared to me.)
I like the idea somebody mentioned of sub forums. Like a musical instrument forum within Cafe Society. A folder up there near the stickies would be a great place to talk piano, guitar, theremins, etc.
I thought about posting that I’d like a pet-related forum, but you know what? Very often I’ll open and read a thread that would normally not interest me, only to really enjoy it and get engaged. I think if we compartmentalized things too much, we’d lose some of the community aspect, where people jump into any thread. Sure there are plenty of one-trick ponies, but even some of those learn to post outside their one narrow field of interest and become valued members. I’d hate to lose that.
StG
StGermain has an exceptionally valuable point. Too much compartmentalization means lower traffic in each forum, and less cross-pollinization of ideas. While I think the existing layout of forums could use some tweaking, I’d add to the list (including sub-forums) very, very cautiously. It would be easy to divide the community here below the vibrancy point.
A VS forum for all X vs Y threads.
I’d like a separate section for Member Biographies.
Maybe it’s just me, but when reading someone’s thoughts and opinions, I’d really like to know a little about their background and life experiences. It should have only one thread per member, and be editable at any time. It would be nice to have some basic info on age, location, and a general (although anonymous) description of their life’s path thus far.
This.
When we need to talk about tragedies in our lives, it would be good to be able to post under something other than “Pointless and Mundane Stuff.”
I think you can already do this in your profile.
Hmm. “THE BATHROOM” is not a bad name, but perhaps not inclusive enough. I suggest “THE GUTTER”, as in, having your mind in the…
Appropriate for sex and bodily functions, and the “who’s the hottest redheaded actress portraying a 60’s single mom while balancing a career in advertising” type threads. 
J.