Perhaps a tacky idea, but it would be nice for there to be a section for new members to introduce themselves. As a new poster it's a bit scary trying to jump into a thread with nobody having the slightest clue who you are. 

Just a technical note for myself - there seems to be some kind of bug or something that means I can't use my own avatar. I just get a dropdown menu and 'Submit Query' button when I go to the 'Choose your avatar' section in My Account. This is the av I want to use: