Precisely. I'd also like to note that the best bet for amazing is something unique that other similar message boards do not offer. Sadly, a little more than your natural charms is required That said, not knowing how do something is a poor reason for not learning how to do it.
here's one- BAN political/religious debate and even conversation on the topic. It becomes such a pain in the ass to deal with the stupidity and cluster****, it gives the forum a way more laid back feel. One forum I frequent is The Idiot Board which is both tiny, heavily moderated, and bans political discourse, but it's the best forum I go to as itreally is viewed as a place to hang out. That said the memberbase is in their 30s by and large, so getting all the 18 year olds to try and make that work might be a challenge. Or you could go the complete opposite direction and run it with the basic tennant that freedom of speech is the most important aspect of the board and only silence it when it gets to undermine the community environment, I've heard there's a yugioh forum that follows this philosophy
^This is also true. Personally, the other message board I frequent is GameDev.net, and the atmosphere is much more professional; making comparisons with YF tends to get a little depressing. Still, you need to pick a demographic and stick with it.
I don't think many people would -want- a professional environment. Unless you're like me and sneak on DG/YF etc at work, many people want to come to a forum to unwind and you can't unwind if you have to hold up your professionalism mask I visit DBWorld (which I wont bother linking, Chris is the only one who'd even begin to appreciate what the site is/is for) but it's a very professional site with the focus on helping people - but there's no discourse, discussion or entertainment, it's just "here's a lot of really technical people to fix your problem" - I don't think you'd enjoy having a site like that Sentibaby. And I dont think you'd be able to have a community where people enjoy staying.