After reading all the responses, I'm still not sure what the fuss is all about. If topics are titled correctly and in the right spot, any functionally literate newbie can figure out that Chit Chat is not the same as the Main section or Pictures. If there were any doubts, I think there is an info topic locked at the top of each section.
As to the recently locked topic, I was a responder. I found it interesting on a couple levels - finding out how many other "Night Hawks were in the diner", and the larger question of how do you get any quilting in when this economy, we have extra folks living together. I have a roommate, so that one really interested me. I am sorry if it was found to be too depressing to allow to continue. For some of us, it is daily life. If allowed to continue, I wonder how many good suggestions would have been offered to balance the two issues. Since no explanation of the locking was given, I will never know.
I don't have a PDA, but I do look at them occasionally. If I need to vent, I generally do it in the chatroom, where I may have the luxury of instant feedback from people I have grown to think of as my quilting family.
One thing that is under-used lately is the good old PM. I see new topics introduced aimed at individuals asking specific questions about things that could be better addressed off-board.
Something I brought up during the last shakeup was sending a pm out to newbies with links to directions and an overview of how things work. I never could find out a way to make it work, because some people don't post an introduction, or bury their intro in other threads. Maybe a link from the sign-up sheet to a page explaining the general setup would help, but some folks just do as they please anyway.