I decided I'd answer your questions here.
When you're in the list of forum posts there will be a 'new thread' button at the top. When you're reading a post you can only reply. When reading a post you'll see the location of the post so if you want to find the forum list go back and click on the last location. For this post it will with 300+ Club.
Signatures/tickers are available after 30 days and 30 posts. I believe this was put in place to avoid spammers. They would sign up, load up their signatures with links and post away. It's an unfortunate solution, but a month isn't such a long time in the long run.
In the meantime -
The Other OC Chick - answering your questions
