Hi everybody !
I must say that I had to think a lot before posting in this so fuzzy topic ! 
Trying to make some order in it, I think now there are three different problems in it :
- internet newbies who don’t know how to click
- LD beginners, new and lost on the forum
- advanced LD’ers, who want more information
I hope you’ll agree to that the three problems cannot be solved in the same way.
As for Internet newbies, the only thing that can help is forum interface usability. It’s my first forum and it didn’t take me a lot of time to learn how to find a topic and make a search. When I have some questions about the interface, I use the Helpdesk.
I don’t think there is much more to say about Internet beginners.
Concerning LD beginners, we can find a particular sub-case, ( sorry, I’m working in computers : 
), it’s LD beginners who want to manage on them own :
About this point, I think that three things could be improved on LD4all :
- the intro section, which is a bit messy ;
- in the forum index, the main topics are somewhat unclear. You often don’t know where to post, and therefore where to find a topic. I would need a reorganization, or explanation sentences could be at least more explicit.
- what seems to me more important, the search engine, which is not powerful enough. For instance, there is a big problem with acronyms : if you’re searching for RC, you’ll find all the words with ‘rc’ inside ; you can’t make a search on topics titles, etc.
But if those beginners want to manage on them own, they don’t need a tutor. So it’s out of topic.
So we just have to handle the following cases :
- LD beginners who want to be assisted
- LD beginners who want personnal answers
- advanced LD’ers who want personnal answers
LD beginners who want to be assisted
Who and where are there ? Moreover, it don’t seems to me that the “Adoptions” topic triggered a lot of enthusiam, nor amongst the beginners, neither amongst the potential tutors : 10 answers and it just lasted one day.
LD beginners who prefer to have personnal answers than to read the previous topics
Though beginners are informed of reading previous topics, everybody knows that they ask a lot of personnal questions indeed ! and have a lot of personnal answers too. When some answers are not relevant, it’s very common that a more experienced LD’er gives a more judicious reply.
Saying there would be no redundancy in questions is not right, cause tutors would have to manage with redundancy, just the same way they are doing yet.
Moreover, I think that redundancy is a good thing. Redundant postings are what gives life to the forum. There are always more beginners than experienced LD’ers, and thus more basic than very interesting threads, about new techniques or specific helps. Remove all the redundant beginners questions, and you’ll have a sort of Lounge and Playground forum, no more related with LDing.
On the other hand, beginners posts are good in such a way they asks sometimes strange questions which lead you to change your mind about your own techniques and experiences. As one said, “others want to learn too from your questions and the answers.”
That’s why I think that beginners questions have to be kept, and not to be hidden in private messages.
Advanced LD’ers who want personnal answers
The problem is that there are not so many expert dreamers in LD4all. You can count them on the left hand fingers. Moreover, I don’t have the feeling that they all are available and interested in being tutors. What to do with so few tutors ? In such conditions, a one-on-one based interaction is impossible. And the problem will be worse than what I exposed above, cause you will no more see potentially interesting posts yet.
About what I’ve read, I saw two good ideas :
First of all, the possibility for people having things, interests, projects in common, to group and share help and experience. It could be a structure for that, but it has not to be the LD4all main goal. It could be a sort of extension of the Lucid Laboratory. I don’t like the sealife system, ( though I don’t know it very much, I just chat a little about it ) cause it seems to me that the groups are so much closed. You don’t know what the projects of other teams are, and what they do. And as with fewer people, there are less LD, they found the trick to share their ND diaries on a weekly basis to maintain motivation in the team, and of course, this is secret, so it makes the team more withdrawn.
In my opinion, the basis of such a team system could be common projects, for a limited duration.
Second point, someone said that the LD4all chat room is misused. I agree with him. I went there four times and it was chatted about anything but LD. So it could be a good idea to plan meetings on the chat, at certain time.
Long post, soory. 
. Sorry.
