Clementine,
The sub forums should be divided into useful outlets for information flow between user and interface.
General forum should be renamed so as to not be a catch all because as it states now people can post anything in there which contradicts faction recruitment, trade forum, and others. General is too general.
There should be a help or assistance forum so both community managers and users can make threads for assistance.
A suggestions forum so good ideas are not buried in consistent "general" topics.
You want to parcel information am discussions so users no where to go to a quicker response and easier for community managers to data mine that information.
It will clean up threads and posts allowing flow of information to be more readily accessible.
I posted to CJ about this a while back but it didn't go anywhere.
You could create a sticky of good ideas so ideas are not constantly regurgitated. Allowing members to see their ideas (good ideas) are captured.
Small forum layout changes will reap larger benefits to both the users and to you as well.