Just some observations from a long time member, mostly just lurking.

The name and description of the forum is clear as to the purpose of the forum. Sometimes the moderation is very loose and sometimes it is very tight. It does seem to go in cycles.

You should get over the notion that Renderosity is a community. It is a business, period. It is a business that likes to foster the image of a community, but it is in the end, a business. The forums, galleries, etc. only exist to bring people to the site in the hopes that they will go to the store and spend money. The forums and galleries are marketing tools.

By the way, I think that this is pretty much the same with all the different Poser/Bryce-based sites that contain a store. They are selling products. Some are more mercenary about it than others.

As for the various OT forums being 'unsuccessful', you may need to define the terms for success. It seems to me that those forums generated more traffic than the majority of the forums here. If by unsuccessful, you mean that they could generate controversy, not to mention that they weren't talking about the latest and greatest Vickie texture then I guess they would be unsuccessful.

The reason for moving OT posts to a super-secret forum is so they can keep tabs on you. Remember, you do have permanent records here.