i love politics, its the only way to get heat on the interwebs. even in this thread people are bitching about politics. its awesome.
in all seriousness rob, the only way you are going to grow this forum appreciably is to turn it into another forum. give guys like pro the power to decide what is or isnt acceptable conversation(pretty button power). it will then set up a pecking order of brown noses and wannabes and the community will grow.
see nightly.net wikipedia ect. from pageviews standpoint its not a bad way to go. its your $ if that what you want go for it. i guarantee you wont have the same community you have now, but i have to think if this wasnt enjoyable we wouldn't all keep coming back. but i dont think you can have it both ways.
personally i would rather go back to the natureverse and debate the bots.