Here's the problem with an OT forum (and a little history).
I always welcomed off-topic discussion and had it taking place in the General RPG forum. There were limits, though -- I personally didn't care to try to host or moderate threads on politics or religion, simply because these are pretty devisive topics, people get pretty riled up over them, and no one wants to have their mind changed. So the rule back then was "OT is ok except for politics and religion."
Russ feels the same way -- it's no fun for him to try to run a pleasant message board where people start lining up along political or religious lines. So, then, what about an OT Forum? My thought always was (and I assume Russ feels the same) that an OT Forum sort of implies cart blanche permission to discuss anything -- even stuff that I didn't (and Russ doesn't) want the burden of moderating (politics and religion).
IF Russ could really make it clear that an OT forum was for everything except politics and religion, and if people could stick to that, I could see an OT Forum being feasible. It might make an interesting experiment for a week or so.