Why can't I make new topics in the "General Discussion" board? Is that normal?
For some time there had been abuse of the General Discussion forum. Members tended to just start new threads there so avoid having to think about where to put them and not because they really belonged there, so Matthew blocked posting in that forum. I do find that some topics genuinely belong there and I have to squeeze them into some loosely-related sub-forum.
I do wish there were an easier way to get a longer "Recent Threads" listing, however, since if a thread doesn't appear on the short list, I end up having to poke around various sub-fora looking for it. Perhaps there is but I don't know how to find it.