I have been a miner since 2011 and I find the Mining and Technical discussion sections very informative. This is why I continue to visit this forum. You can't find the wealth of information that you can find here elsewhere.
As for the Bitcoin Discussion section, to be honest, I consider it to be mostly chit-chat and not to be taken seriously anymore these days. For technical reasons, I am against BIP101, so maybe I am don't feel the alleged censorship as others who are for this BIP might.
Mine was introduce by an employer. Since then i like to hangout in here. I didn't usually make a post. So i stay newbie after a year.
As for the issue in resizing the blockchain. You can share you thoughts here
http://coin-vote.com/poll/55e8a33299baadff0a34acb7 I think it is also relevant.