Hi Bahn,
It's a tough balancing act, as you mentioned, no matter what we do. If we move things, we get "why did you move this? It's a GENERAL discussion!" If we don't move threads, we get "why don't you use the other forums? This should be in xyz!" When it comes to "what are you doing to make the other forums more popular?" that is one of the reasons we move things and leave redirects. Maybe we can increase the time that redirects remain in place, instead of expiring to try and give a visual cue to the community that "oh right, there are other places for this." What we notice is that often times it's the community itself that chooses the General forum as the defacto place to go which leads to the under-utilization of the other forums that are there.
"But that's because there's no discussion taking place there." Which brings us back to moving threads to the other places when appropriate. I don't feel there's an exact science to it without appearing (whether true or not) to be overly heavy handed, and it's always going to be a process that evolves as the forum and community itself does.
As to the comment that we don't reply to topics in the other sections, I don't think that's true. We routinely check all parts of the forum to find discussion and comments. Often if we find something in General, that fits better elsewhere, we first move it and then respond to it try and encourage the use of the other sections. But it doesn't always work out. However, when there are hundreds of topics each day in the General forum, and we reply to some there, it will give the appearance that we only reply in General.
In the end, each user may have different opinions of each subject, so we try and keep all of that in mind when deciding what actions, if any, to take on a thread. We appreciate the feedback and suggestions and we'll continue to try to find a good balancing act when it comes to discussions in general (and in General Discussion). (P.S. Mychael was right, this was best meant for Feedback and Suggestions

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