Originally Posted by
carleton
Also, a lot of folks get really comfortable in a sub-forum (Road Cycling for example) and want to post everything there forgoing other, more appropriate, sub-forums. "How do I remove my Bottom Bracket?" is not a Road Cycling specific problem. So, stuff like that would best be directed to Mechanics. The same goes for off-topic threads.
You look at it wrong. It's about community formation, not information. It makes no sense at all for me to ask an arbitrary mechanical question in a forum where I don't know anyone. I can more quickly get the information from someone in a forum where I post regularly that I actually know. Likewise, we have a music thread in road racing. Yes, you can argue it should be in foo. But I don't care what a group of people I've never conversed with are listening to, I'm interested in what guys I know are listening to.