It may be this way by design, I'm not sure, but I hate it. Not only is it annoying, it also makes it extremely difficult to meet the 1:30 required to get an A. Outside of that, Egypt is pretty cool. I'm glad they rolled out an update - I was starting to get bored.
I noticed the same thing, but I realized it just depends on which sub-forum you're in. If you're in BGI Announcements you can't make a new thread, which makes sense. I'm able to make a thread in all other BGI sub-forums, though. Some forums/websites won't let you post until you've verified your email address too, so that…
This isn't exactly what you're asking but I think it should help: http://ggnbb.glu.com/showthread.php?594-What-is-the-best-path-for-quot-changing-devices-quot