I am wanting to create a forum that is much more easily searchable.  Particularly with a category/subcategory integration.

For example,  I have about 15 categories and each category has on average 5 subcategories.  When a user starts a new thread, I would like them to be able to pick these from filtered dropdown boxes (subcategory filtered off of category), so that way, when a user is searching for information, he can easily drive down to specific topic before he begins his text search.

The only other "good" forum module I know of is Active Forums, and on the surface, it doesn't seem to have this capability.  Is this correct?  Does anyone have a suggestion from the forum standpoint on how I could achieve this type of customization?  P.S. I don't have much programming experience but I am good at following examples.

Another way I have thought about doing this, is allowing the entry system to be more of a simple form based system, for example, when a user wants to document a product issue, he can select a category, subcategory, etc. and submit the form.  I could then query the results of this form to a table, but I would still like users to be able to submit comments on these entries.  XMOD could be good for this, but since it is XML based, you have use some crazy javascript to get dependent comboboxes to work or use a parent child relationship, which isn't really a good workflow for what I am trying to implement.

I have played around with IndooGrid as well.  It has a pretty good relational database setup to do what I want, but i am a little unsure how I would set up my database tables to allow for a user to add comments.  And on top of that, I don't know enough about the module to know how to pass a "PostID" to a entry form to leave a comment for that particular post.  PLUS YOU CAN'T REALLY DO MUCH WITH THE GRAPHICAL INTERFACE...really basic grids and colors, etc. at least on the surface.

If anyone has any ideas, or working examples of something at least close to what I am trying to achieve, I would really appreciate the input.  Thanks!