I really like the idea of a more open-ended forum for pitching ideas and seeking guidance, but – at first blush – I think I'd rather see that discussion happen on this site, even if it means creating a few more categories if need be. I'd also hesitate to differentiate between a newbies board and a usual-suspects board – I think this site has already proven convincingly that everyone can share the space. As I'm re-reading the messages above, I'm realizing I'm arguing into a void since no one has really proposed to create a separate site.
In any case, I think it's useful to recognize that the ACH Mentoring programme serves a range of purposes, some of which can be covered here, some of which can't (in its current form). As Bethany mentions, there are more venues available now for newer scholars to seek advice & guidance (like @dhanswers), which is an important function of the mentoring programme. But another function is to try to pair newer DH scholars with more established DH scholars in a more intense relationship, one that goes beyond just expertise and can be about helping to network, allowing more private and frank discussion, and just establishing a kind of advocate role that can be very beneficial for new scholars (shoot an email to mentoring@digitalhumanities.org if any of this is of interest to you).
One possibility I could imagine would be to tweak the back-end code to allow users to mark themselves with a badge as potential mentors, which essentially would invite visitors to the site to contact them to ask about establishing a mentoring relationship. With the ACH Mentoring we've tried to balance things out so that mentors aren't overwhelmed with multiple mentees, but @dhanswers mentors could choose to remove their badge if they wish.
