"What do you want from a forum?"
I would suggest asking yourself what someone would want from a forum which would make them switch from an established forum. Having the gazilion-sixth forum on web design does not put it on my must-see list.
In no particular order...
-- Innovative Discussions sections. An entirely different take on web design. (Is there some Soviet-era standards body forcing the same old stuff, replicated endlessly?)
-- Innovative Topics. If digital economics exist, they surely penalized superficial variation and reward innovation.
So what might qualify as innovative? How about the depressing trend toward
monkey-see, monkey do web design
everyone including
Zeldman is seeing. Perhaps do a little piece on unusual
web widgets. Or, instead of a link exchange designed to get around a "me-too" site's all-too-correct low ranking, I'd like to see a forum promote a
content exchange for a change.
All this would seem to fit in with the theme "web design buzz."