Howdy,
While I begin to see Pete's point (have been thinking the same a few times recently), I actually think the throughput in this forum isn't too bad yet, but it's getting there slowly so it's probably good to give it some thought/discussion before it gets to unmanageable proportions
There are a few downsides to splitting too. Every split means more work for admins/moderators as many, many threads will land in the 'wrong' place - hoverflies will endlessly be places with the hymenopterans, bugs with the beetles and flying objects allsorts with dipterans (alderflies, scorpionflies, booklice etc etc). In fact, to find new 'scorpionfly' posts I would probably have to check 3-4 different categories: Diptera, Hymenoptera, Mecoptera and/or "Other/Unknown insects" ...
In order to be able to 'sort' things properly afterwards there would more or less have to be a new 'rule' stating that you should only ask
one ID in each thread as it would be a real pain in the bum to split threads that start out by asking about 3 hymies, 2 dipterans a booklouse and an alderfly titled
"Some fly IDs please" 
This rule would instantly
increase the number of threads you need to open to see what's going on and actually make things worse(!)
So, if you want to prepare for a split in the long run there should be some good thought going into the categories you wish to bother with. An extreme example of "splitting up" is the French forum at
insecte.org which is great if you're only interested in following a limited number of groups (the moderators are very active and precise and wrongly placed beasts will eventually be tossed into the subforum where they belong, so sooner or later you'll see them), but it certainly does
not invite one to follow all groups - I know for a fact that I read more 'sidetracks' here and on other forums.
The Dutch forum at
waarneming.nl is, for historic/'political' reasons, structured quite chaotically (or to put it nicely: it has it's own peculiar "logic"), which is fine really as people find their way around quickly enough anyway. It splits up a few main groups (Lepidopterans, Odonata, Other Insects and Other Invertebrates) and each category has it's own subdivisions such as Caterpillars, Moth and Butterflies within the Lepidopterans or Beetles, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Galls and "The rest" within "Other insects". Here the admins are not quite as fanatic about placing threads in the right category, so if I would really only watch the ones I'm 'working on' myself I would miss some of the threads - mainly scorpionflies have a tendency to not get moved
out of the diptera or hymenoptera sections if placed there initially so I would miss some of those as I'm hardly interested in these groups (due to "overload"). This slight lack of management actually means I do occasionally browse through the Diptera and Hymenoptera forums anyway and
do get sidetracked with neat threads that I would otherwise miss entirely - so maybe it's a 'good thing' (tm) after all
One other interesting line of attack was introduced on a the German forum at
insectenfotos.de just a month or so ago where the admin is now 'testing' a split
not based on 'taxonomy' (except for Spiders and Other Invertebrates that already had their own subforums to begin with), but on "ID requests", "Just sharing" and "General discussions", but that forum as a bigger load of threads aimed at just showing/sharing 'nice' finds etcetera so I'm not sure it would help much on WAB and it has some other drawbacks too IMHO.
Like I said, personally I don't think the total load of threads on WAB-"Insects" is too bad (yet) and a very obvious first split of giving Arachnids and Other Invertebrates their own subforum (or two) would probably be quite sufficient as a first line of action, but it would also already
really help a lot if people would
be more conscientious about naming their threads properly so that others can safely ignore or select them (yeah right, like that's going to happen anytime soon
)
My 2ct
Arp
P.S. @Naturegirl: Since when is gender a "race" ?
P.P.S. Just checked: Actually the "Thread naming" has greatly improved and is mostly quite okay - so, sorry 'bout that
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