In the "Beginners & Help" thread, maybe there can be a stickied post at top for newbies to introduce themselves if they wish. Seems like a lot of the posts recently in that thread are just that.
I gave the guy a merit for suggesting this. It's something that I've seen in many forums, and I'm a bit embarrassed that I didn't think of suggesting it.
I think it would be a good idea, and it would save some of the clutter on the index page. It would also make an interesting reference thread.