Just found out about this, and it's really good news. There are a number of communities which I would very much like to onboard to the Steem ecosystem, but forums are a -must-. I have a friend who is a developer that is considering building an alternative for a community on FB (about 10,000 strong) which may very soon be censored straight-off of FB. Though she's a complete badass, hosting such a community on something like Wordpress means a whole -LOT- of work for $0.00 in return. Giving her an alternative that could possibly result in renumeration for her efforts would be a big draw. So having something that fulfills this functionality is very good news.
My one concern is that, if I've read your post correctly, you are dismissing cultural forums out of hand... That could be a problem.
Anyways, great work; and I plan to keep tabs on you..
Silas Danois