Yep, lotsa traffic on facebook and can you get swift responses. However finding history or any great level of detail, I still use the forums, as data moves on in Facebook or other social media sites like it and finding more detail information isn't really there. Plus, no easy specific search capability to pull up specific detail in a old thread. Most of the social chat has migrated over to FB and that is a good medium for it. Chat there, deposit detailed information here.
As far as number of sections in the forum, it at least for me, helps me begin my search and sort for topics, I know i can isolate a search depending on what tools are available, but already separated makes at least for me, much easier to go through topics for learning and reference purposes without having to read as many off topic threads.
I use 5-6 BMW forums as reference stores. Some with less sections, some with 1. I personally like the separation and groupings for this forum.
What do I know tho, I have only owned and renewed 7 TIs. I suspect there are others here who have done way more...
I thought the other day if the site was still useful to me. Then made a donation, as it really is a great reference point for our cars. Anyway, Thanks Steven for assembling and administering this site. It still is very useful to me.