I think it's a bit of both really but I've wondered the same. There was a few newbie mining question threads today and I didn't know whether they belonged there or in Mining.
It is these ambiguous barries between subforums I was hoping the forum could define.
Maybe a flow chart or so that is stickied.
No new topic should make you wonder , you should always know exactly which topic, or there should be prompts to help you know it definitely.