Sorry Gillian, a misunderstanding I guess. What I'd like is for any change to be non-increasing in terms of sub-fora. Less if possible, no change if not.

As for deleting, I have two suggestions. The first of these will probably never happen, but the second might.

1. Collapse all the UT/BA fora into one. That frees up 4 slots.
2. Collapse Astrophotography and Astronomical OEA into one. Amateur astronomy? That will free up another slot.

So you now have 5 extra slots to play with. You could get rid of a couple and make use of the rest.

For example, you could have a forum on with FAQs, because the some questions keep getting asked over and over again (GR, black holes), and people are often too lazy to search.

Or you could have a 'Frequently Covered Topics' forum instead (or as well). Discussions on evolution and global warming come up all the time. Older members will be able to think of more I'm sure.

But forums like these will have to be maintained, so I'm not sure as to how feasible they would be.

One low maintenance suggestion, and one that could also be done right away, is a 'Latest posts' forum. Tweak the software to aggregate all the last posts and display the latest 20/30 in a sub forum of its own. My browser would be very happy.