Thanks for the suggestions, I do appreciate offering solutions to problems and not just complaining :)  Hopefully, as you read below you will see I have addressed everything in what I feel to be the best methods.

I have added the ability to have thread status assigned per thread. The original author or a moderator are then allowed to do one of two things with this status. They can change the status of the thread using a drop down list or they can click the Mark As Answer button on the specific post found to provide the answer. What this does is after that is done, anyone viewing the post will see the "Accepted Answer" in the upper right hand corner of the post header (individual post in that thread). I think it is devExpress where I seen this feature and find it rather invaluable. (I think I blogged about this and provided screen shots too)

The reason I am against what you suggested specifically is, simply put, we don't need more threads and forums then we already have. I find it best that a user see the entire thread as a single thread may actually 'walk through' a solution using a series of posts.

As for the other search issues, I am not sure what is causing these errors and don't have access to this site log to see them. (I am guessing this may have something to do with Groups being selected, not just forums) As for being able to search all forums, if you leave the forums search selection blank it will search all forums. I should also add that I have added a textbox in each forum (thread view) in the upper right hand corner that is to search that specific forum. It is a simple search and will not be user specific but it should save a few clicks.

One final note is this is all done in my develompent source and tested.