talkmagic.co.uk

I'm no expert, but market research sounds like a perfectly acceptable approach to a design project.

I look for the following things in a magic forum:

Clear layout that is easy on the eye (a very famous magic forum has a truly hideous colour scheme). I do not care if it's pretty much a standard "off-the-peg" skin.

Easy to navigate, not too many sections and sub-sections to get lost in. This also helps to ensure that people post new threads in the right area.

Low levels of tolerance for exposure, especially on bits of the forum that can be accessed without even logging in.

Following on from that, it is helpful to have areas where there is some restriction on access, so people can say a bit more than they could in the "open" forum.

A good moderation team. They shouldn't be too strict, but step in at the right time and in the right way. Talkmagic has this pretty much bang on (although there are a few people aggrieved by this, it's largely of their own making).

Quality posts. Obviously, a designer cannot make people post and cannot be responsible for the content, but I think a good site tends to attract (and keep) people from whom it is worth hearing.