What they are for
- Asking the question you feel stupid asking
- Showing what you made, including when it went wrong
- Arguing about technique, which is half of every hobby
- Working out what to buy from people who own it
- Finding somebody else who cares about the same obscure thing
Community, not authority
A brilliant forum thread stays a brilliant forum thread. It does not quietly turn into an official page while nobody is looking.
Reference material is maintained separately, on purpose. If a thread settles something the wiki gets wrong, the wiki gets edited, credited, and checked. The thread is where it was worked out, not where it is recorded.
What they need before they open
Forums are easy to open and hard to keep worth reading. None of this is optional:
- Moderation by people, with enough of them to cover the hours
- Reporting that gets looked at
- Anti-spam and anti-scam. Scams are the bigger problem in hobby communities
- Rules against harassment that are actually enforced
- A clear line on what is not allowed at all
Opening them before that is in place would be worse than not opening them.
Not built yet
Forums come last on purpose. A forum with nobody in it is a bad advert, and a forum opened without moderation is a worse one.