But we are posting some of it way before you, I know that you guys are volunteers and do this in your free time, but if the info is being dropped right into your lap, then that should make putting up it on the site that much easier and quicker. The entire forum could be just like the news tip thing on the front page, that's why I was suggesting making a thread specifically for it in the NWR Discussion.
I'm not saying that the only way NWR gets stories is to browse the forums, see a story, follow the links to the source and then report it like you found it first. I'm saying that if you getting around to writing up a story and notice that there is already an info rich story/thread about it in the forums, then why not point that out somewhere in the bottom of the article? Why not use info from that thread to beef up your article? and why not use that thread to show off how awesome your own forums are and encourage casual browsers to check out the user side of the forum and not just the discussion of that specific news story, which in this case, is very anemic in comparison. It's not a jab at the site or the staff, just hoping to energize the forums with more active users/posters. It seems like a rather small request being over blown by the staff like I'm insulting you.
"Discuss it in Talkback"
"Discuss it in the Forums"
the two links could co-exist, I don't see why it's such a big deal, especially if the thread being linked to has had a lot of effort & info put into it.