There're other ways to achieve the same result w/o aggravating your users. For example, in case when new forums are created, you could provide such info on the first login after that with possibility to subscribe to new forums.

>Because, it has a been a default since the last two years and if we do not do it like that, nobody will ever know about the forum. This is related to a major failure reason that some forums never kicked in. Most of the members never knew it exists. Could you believe that in the last years, I got about 20 emails from members who were not using our site because they thought we were not covering .NET support? ...or even SQL Server, which is one of your favorite forum I assume. :)
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>If it would as gigantic as Facebook, I would turn the default OFF. But, with the size of this product, if I would do it like that, as I mentioned above, it would be a total waste of time for me to set it up and for members, a few isolated ones, who would post a few threads in there where nobody will ever know about it.
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>But, this has been covered in the last year. I do not recall exactly who was involved in the thread. But, with those additional explanations, I think it helps to clarify a little bit why it is done like that. You are using the product with a very wide usage, so as many others here. So, I think we can all agree that we want the product to last as long as it could. If we hide everything, it won't help to make it grow. I spent the weekend trying to help in that direction with many things, such as the Universal Thread Day, Facebook promotion, a few enhancements here and there, additional forum and category setups and also tried to help some members with technical issues. So, in overall, it has happened and will happen again. The only think I ask, if a forum doesn't satisfy your need, assuming for the new ones, please, simply uncheck it with the link I provide in the message when I announce it.