I picked up on a new 'forum' while doing xpress this morning. It's from the CPRE and nothing more sophisticated than a Wordpress.com blog. We've done a few of these in the past and with varying degrees of success.
They've adapted the posting rules from the DCLG's forums but this is not quite the same thing as those are forums and this is a blog. (ruralnet's own Simon Berry has professed in the past his frustrations at only being able to comment and not start a post)
Are they checking their Technorati/Wordpress.com stats to see who is actually having the debate anyway?
One thing they could do is display the comments and/or publicise the feed so that the debate could be spread farther and wider than just the blog. Something that ruralnet|online could help facilitate?
ruralnet|online feed