cross reference database
 

i know it isnt probably feasable, but now that you have all these great forums it is more likely that a thread that fits in one may fit in another. like a red hat thread could also fir in one of the traditional threads like software. it would be so neat to go to the forum you want like software and also see the relative threads from the distro forums and vice versa, go to the mandrake forum and see all the threads that are concerning mandrake not just the ones posted in the mandrake forum.

not sure on the mechanics of it but maybe need a sort of second subject line with a drop down choice of the distro in question with a default setting for your regular distro so you wouldnt have to choose every time. that way you could use that to group it in the right distro forum whenever someone went to it and also you could have another dropdown for software, hardware etc selection. i suppose in the end you could just have these type questions set up and they would result in the thread 'seemingly' being in all the right forums without the person just picking a forum from the list to put their question in.

you mean like the "similar threads" feature down at the bottom of the page?

i guess so, but in an improved manner? like make it a requirement for threads to have the authors distro specified to make sure all threads are assigned. and then it would be like a search but the end result would leave the page that shows the forums like you normally see it (with all the forums listed) but with say all the distros but the one youre looking up filtered. so if you are using red hat and you're looking for an answer to a question pertaining to your computer, you can hit the redhat button and then when you pick a forum to go to you only see the red hat related threads.