/join guk.sk
That is where a lot of SK's hang out, and more importantly a lot of the "seasoned" SK's are available to answer questions.
As far as your suggestions about this board...this is the state that our class is in. For the most part it is not an exageration, and the reason for all of the threads is the simple fact nothing has been done about this state in many months...not even a comment in here from a Dev saying they recognize the issue. People are frustrated and [Removed for Content].
This is what you walked into...accept it.