New Gresham yerself! The point I hope my post made, for the rest of you, was that the existing forums of Calormen, and still moreso in the case of Athenoi, are already more or less off-topic forums. Perhaps, instead of creating a new forum, one of those can simply be used? Probably Athenoi's would be the better candidate, since it already hosts the ongoing "post something about the person above you" thread!
Well, now, if Calormen requests a bar forum, why on Earth would the Ministry of Asset Management give it to Athenoi? Calormen requested the forum in order to increase posting traffic in its forums. I don't see how that goal would be accomplished if the bar-themed forum were given to Athenoi.
That would be like the State of California applying for federal disaster relief following an earthquake and discovering that Washington decided to give the money to Massachussetts, instead.
The problem, of course, is that you don't take the Commonwealth communities as seriously as the persons involved with them do. If you can't be constructive with regard to them, don't actively try to belittle them when they're trying to amplify themselves. There may be persons who have no interest in being a part of Hanover or Pendronia who would like to be a citizen of Calormen or Athenoi. There are all types of prospective citizens out there. At the end of the day, they become part of the empire.
The other problem is your bizarre obsession with the minimalization of any discussion board. You seem to want to make them as boring and devoid of diversity as possible. The Hanoverian forums were never so frequented as early on when they were very diverse and offered something for everone: casinos, bars, coffee shops, palaces, royalty forums, political party forums, etc.
I once went to an indoor amusement park in Niagara Falls as a child. When I walked in, I was horrified to see that everything was grey! The rides were grey, the game booths were grey, the concession stands were grey and the walls were grey. The entire park was painted in drab, battleship grey.
Your aspirations for our forums often remind me of that park.