@mschwartz Important feedback.
On one point that interest's me the most because it's a big deal and a universal problem-challenge for any site admin, owners and operators.
Getting users to sign up!
I would view this as a platform agnostic problem
That does not preclude NodeBB from attempting to enhance signing up users, but the impetus that makes a user sign up to any site is not clear cut and involves a whole range of factors beyond simply the platform and the UI/UX.
My concluding comment is this singular point of feedback would benefit the whole and is so deserving it's own topic and here is one I created https://community.nodebb.org/topic/17636/why-do-users-sign-up