Seeing as how this is a forum of a gaming site, where people can come to nerd out, I don't see the relevance of threads pertaining to peoples daily lives or random photos. This isn't another Social Networking site.
That isn't meant to be against getting to know people outside of their nerd-dom, just that daily happenings aren't the point. Something exciting or big happens (have an accident, win a contest) that'd make for a better thread than HWYD. I look at pictures in a similar way, go to a tourist location and take pics? Keen. Posting pics of a random party? (likely like a dozen other random parties) bleh.
For the other conglomerated threads, I think some sort of middle ground is needed. They were hard to jump into without the feel that your post would just be washed away in a sea of prattle. Which certainly seemed like the case most of the time. I think the Anime and Film threads were easiest to jump into though, at least easier than Music. On the other hand, there are so many various films, musics, and anime (ok nvm that one, the only talk was about naruto bleach and anime vs. manga) that clutter seems inevitable.
We'll have to wait and see. To be honest though, I already like the forums more now with the more...segregated approach to finding a topic in any given medium relevant to ones interests. Ala, Scott Pilgrim and Tron Legacy threads.