I am also of the opinion that the forum's creator is entitled to get the place to function in the way he planned it from the start. Having created things like fanzines, sites and forums in the past, there is simply nothing I hated more than someone trying to take over or trying to corrupt the original concept.
Yet I also understand the frustration of some. I know that sometimes I will refrain from simply commenting on a contribution with a "Wow! Awesome!" and thus will strive to add a little something to it to get the thread going... but I think sometimes it's also good to simply be appreciative. There is nothing on this forum that bugs me more than seeing months old "threads" made of one single post containing absolutely awesome stuff and no-one even seemed to care and say "Thanks!"
If Secret Projects is meant as an encyclopaedia only for the erudites to contribute and the others to read, then I don't think a forum is quite the format you guys want. Any Content Management System can do the trick, with different levels of contribution and mostly publication of stuff... The occasional comment here or there, and that's all.
However, the principle of forums is THREADS. From a natural point of view, a thread can loop, it can sometimes be lost and found again, can sometimes be hard to follow, but it is a living thing! If you belong to a forum and you're afraid to just go plain silly in a post for fear of irrelevancy or the ire of the admin, the forum ceases to be the social place it is destined to be.
When I realize that a months old member (Triton) became a "guest" (read: either "resigned" or "was chucked out") because he expressed his disagreement on that point, it is kind of a shame. And if the admin or some high profile members cannot tolerate the existence of a bar section, and even worse, if they strive to control even what is discussed in that informal section, then clearly this forum ceases to be a welcoming place to simply become a restricted club for experts.
Of course this is only my opinion on the matter, for what it's worth. I'm only a rookie in this place, but I also know a thing or two, and if my status as an "ordinary" member means that I should always be wary of not getting off-topic, or that I may face censorship of my posts if I stray a bit, or worse, if I can no longer even start a thread, I may have to reconsider my membership eventually.
