I've only read the first 6-8 pages of the thread. And I don't have time to read it all tonight. But I have a couple of thoughts based on the responses I've seen.
Someone recommended more of a full scale forum with a breakdown for each class, etc. Something more proactive toward getting community involvement in the development process would be to open new forum sections related to what is being worked on, or what is coming up soon in the task list for the devs. It will serve a dual purpose of updating the community on progress, while reviving some relevant information from the dead horses of the previous forums we've had.
When I don't have time to keep up with the updates, I often wish that the first reply was reserved as the place to update the overall status of the thread. Especially when I'm just starting to read one that is over 10 pages long. When I only have to 'view first unread' from a day or two ago it's easy.
As far as dealing with the innevitable noob questions, maybe we the community need to be replying to their messages with a prefab list of links to the faq and good stickies in the forums to redirect them. Many of us would be glad to add a recommended reading list to our sigs so that we can give them a friendly Welcome and point them to the FAQ and the update section for instance. I've seen some people do this already.
I'm not going back and reading the FAQ atm. One reason is that when I click on it on the home page, or the top of this page, I end up at a screen to search the FAQ. My wife had trouble finding it for the same reason. I could find it again if I really cared to dig around and remember where it is. But I don't right now. Now to my point: If the FAQ is anything but bullet point comments most people won't actually read it. They'll skim detailed instructions and thoroughly miss the point too. I have a very detailed document (with summaries for each section even) that I have to rewrite at work for this reason. A bullet point version of information in the forum account creation might get across to more of the people. I have my doubts. But it might. Especially if it only addresses minimal points. eg, "The EMU is still being created. We do not know when it will be finished. Please read the FAQ and Update sections for more information." A good short sticky in the Introductions forum might be a good idea too. Making the FAQ link in the blue bar at the top of the page go to the actual FAQ might remove some confusion as well. And if you don't know what link I'm talking about try this,
http://www.swgemu.com/forums/faq.php I've read posts where people argued with new members who didn't find the FAQ because they followed that link. And that is the FAQ link a new member is going to spot first.
I'll try to finish reading this thread in a couple of days in order to be fully up to speed with it. My apologies if I've repeated suggestions. And thanks for all the hard work.