Good luck with your endeavor, Helloforum. But I echo the sentiments of most people here. In the words of Gypsy Rose Lee (in the musical, Gypsy).... "Ya gotta have a gimmick!" In the case of a forum, I think that means a "hook". You have to have some reason to get people to stop there in the first place and then you have to have enough content (this forum gets about 1500 posts a day) that the drop-in says, "Say, this isn't just a Pokemon Conservancy Site, they've got some interesting people here discussing stuff that's interesting TO ME."
Right now, our most active sub-forums are Politics and Social Issues/Current Events. Most members, though, came here when it was the old JREF Forums and were attracted by de-bunking of charlatans, bad science, quackery, etc... and stayed for the casual (and pitched battle) discussions on less subjective material. (My political party's better than your political party! Is not! Is too! Poopie head! LOL PWND!) But there's still a strong undercurrent of critical thinking and skepticism. You won't see people arguing politics on Youtube citing logical fallacies the way you will here.
The bad news? Forums are dying. This one is active, perhaps, from your perspective, but it's down by about 50% of its peak users about six years ago. Social media has taken up all the people who are just here for the lulz and the camaraderie. Social media is not a good platform for a decent debate or heated discussion, though, so many of us still like the forum format. But while it's not dead or not even dying, it has receded to a tertiary position to the click click click generation. If someone posts here, in Forum Community, "Show us your breakfast" you get fifteen responses and 112 "views". People view/respond if they're interested. On FB, everyone has to look at the pictures of your porridge and juice.
