[@chrishajer Participant 15 years, 10 months ago]

For issue # 1, you might want to try hidden forums:

https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/hidden-forums/

For # 2, in the “started by” data column, just use this in your template’s front-page.php:

<?php topic_author(); ?>

You said “started by” right, since “last poster” is already there, right?