Forum Styles

Ok, I am a drupal noob and it's hard to stop one-self from exploring beyond the bounds of realism sometimes. But drupal is so much fun.

The first area of questions I have relates exactly to this style of forum. I love the way it breaks down to what we have here at drupal. And what I mean by this are simply these three pages:

You click on the forums at the top of any drupal screen and it takes you here:
http://drupal.org/forum

Then while in that screen, you click on the support blue bar and you get the break down of the current forums within that group. Yes, I know you dont have to, but when you do, you just get the support forums which take you to here:
http://drupal.org/forum/18

And then you narrow the search down to this topic by clicking on the "How do I" style questions and come to this overall page:
http://drupal.org/forum/22

It's very well structured and is simply beautiful.

Being new to drupal, I don't quite understand how to achieve this level of structure. The first page especially is just so cool, it lists everything (and I'm assuming it can be limited to some degree to show only the top 5 threads - guessing there). So how do I achieve similar results?

What do I create as a container, what is actually a forum and a thread within it? I am guessing I create multiple containers like drupal has done (General, Support and Development) and then within those containers we create forums (such as News and announcements, General discussion, Drupal showcase, and Events; as listed in the General container? Then each thread is created under it by the user or whoever. Am I on the right track?

It's just that when I try it, it doesn't look so neat.

Regards and Thanks

Dave