> gives me a thought...
> instead of 'post a message', or this automatic reply form at the bottom of each message, you could add a series of hyperlinks instead:

> 'offer solution'
> 'comment generally'
> 'flame it'

> and instead of 'post a new message' to start a new thread, you could have:

> 'ask for help'
> 'comment generally'
> 'technical topic'
> 'off topic'

> That way no-one can avoid categorising their posts. It seems nicer than a checkbox or some other mechanism. All these hyperlinks would still get you to the normal post screen, except that a flag in the message would have been set..

that seems a rather elegant solution :-)
not sure about the 'flame it' one though, do we really want to officially sanction flaming?