Hey, thanks for the recommendations and feedback, its appreciated and nice to see new users thinking like this. My 2c (as someone who does not have authority over such things), there are already a ton of subforums, too many probably. In my eyes there should be a high bar of necessity/usefulness when adding new subs. Some thoughts on the specifics.
1. Add "Solar Appliances" section where people can talk about 12v fridges, 12v air conditioners and such.
Regarding the 12V appliances, don't they fit in "Solar Systems"
So as it stands right now, most discussion of appliances/devices or special considerations to a certain use case happen in the subforum that corresponds to that use case (as well as the general subforums). These subs are in what
@upnorthandpersonal referred to as "Solar Systems" (which is not a sub but group of subs). A few examples, (A) Vehicle Mounted Systems, (B) Marine (C) Off Grid Living Advice (D) Cabin or Tiny Home.
There are pros and cons to this versus a sub specifically for
Solar DC appliances. The obvious pro of your recommendation is that discussion will be consolidated in one place. The pro of the status quo, is that discussion happens within the context of the type of build, there is a lot of overlap between Mobile systems, and Marine systems, and to an extent off-grid cabins/homes, but there are also context specific things that people from one community dont understand, or aren't aware of. Keeping the discussion in individual subs fragments it a bit, but it also keeps the conversation more relevant to a given use-case.
As an example: One of the recurring arguments that occurs when someone asks about DC appliances on this forum, is the people (mostly vehicle/marine folks) desiring max efficiency (power and space) DC devices which often have a hefty price premium, and the fixed structure folks (home, cabin, etc) talk past each other because the fixed structure folks often see DC appliances as a big waste of money for a small gain, and argue the price premium you pay could easily go towards just buying more panels/battery--Which is true, if you have space to just add more panels and/or battery storage, but for the vehicle/marine crowd, 'just add another panel' is usually not an option.
A personal side note, I don't love the term 'solar appliances' on some of the less technical forums I'm on, there is
a lot of confusion with system design that stems from people calling anything on the DC side "solar xyz" (Solar batteries, Solar air conditioner, Solar fridge, etc). Most of these things are just DC devices, or regular ole' batteries, occasionally there is something specifically designed around and optimized for solar, but this is more the exception than the rule in my eyes.
2. Add "Biogas" entry in "Other Renewable Energy Sources" section.
I don't know if we ever had a lot of discussion regarding biogas, or indeed, other renewable sources in the first place. It is a mostly solar focused forum.progress
I took a peak at the 'other renewables' section (don't think I've ever looked there before). There are only wind and hydro subs, and no general sub. I think that going the other direction might be a better idea. Instead of adding a new section for biogas, consolidating all 'other renewables' into a single sub might be a better idea. You would have a place to discuss biogas, and we wouldn't have to create new subs for each renewable. I for one, would be interested in learning about the applications of biogas, I'm not familiar with it.
3. Add a top band on the homepage, with a list of last few newest threads.
There are a couple pre-existing features similar to this already. As
@upnorthandpersonal mentioned, the ~5 newest posts are visible in the sidebar. You can also click the 'What's Wew' link in the topbar, or the 'New Posts' link in the drop down below 'What's New'
