Russ

I think you all are looking at this the wrong way. Instead of seeking to punish bad behavior; instead reward good behavior. Incentivize the use of the forums and make it actually something worthwhile to seek out. Have actual community engagement. Get the mods involved in pk tournaments, having dueling tournaments, server wide hide and seek with prizes, etc! These forums unfortunately right now are the home to a few factions, with the rare occasional new blood (though most never stick around for long). You have power institutions by certain groups of "veterans", and the players who suck up to them....and than opposing rivals. Its a popularity contest, and it reeks of high school and middle school drama. Theres no reason to seek out these forums unless you crave the drama here. If you can collectively lessen the influence of these factions by diluting the level of their drama, you will vastly improve the forum (and applying this same concept to in game would have the same results). You can achieve these in several ways, first a containment board, like the flame board here for example. But you absolutely need strict off topic moderation. Secondly is to have a new rank like community mod, who are in charge of hosting events, and delivering results on increased forum activity. Just a few suggestions.