Suggest you set up an Introduction area.

Hi there,

In this top section which is titled PUBLIC FORUMS, could you add one for Introductions?  Then a Newbie will start a new thread introducing himself / herself, and folks can respond to that one person.  Next newbie starts a new conversation thread in that section.  The way you have Intros set up currently it is one long messy thread with lots of pages, and it is not easy for a Newbie to find.

We actually have one already:

Super Secret Private Forum for Stupendous Discussions
This forum is for introduciting yourself, getting to know more about us and /or hatching plots against internet robots. New members, please let us know who you are.

I actually wouldn't personally be comfortable having the introduction forum be public and thereby picked up by bots like google and bing.  A closed forum that only registered members can see allows for new members to post how they feel without worrying about the world wide web picking up on what their saying and spreading to the nether reaches of the web where god knows who can read it.

I do agree though, maybe adding directions to Stupendous Discussions to tell people to make their own 'hi I'm new threads' could be helpful instead of having people confused.  (Btw, you are more then welcome to make your own 'hi I'm new thread' in that forum if you want.)

I have done this in many ways, pointed out where to make introductions; in threads in here, over where they are to be made, etc. People do need to look.