I've been staying out of these discussions about the future of the forum, though I have been following them all with interest, partly because I don't have strong views on some points and partly because I don't want to spend time I should be spending studying Croatian getting sucked into long online debates
Now I've lost track of which discussions have happened in which thread, so you'll have to forgive me if I comment on points which relate to conversations in threads other than this one, but here's my tuppence-worth...
I think there are both pros and cons to allowing off-topic discussion. One of the great things for me about HTLAL is that it doesn't feel "cliqueish" at all in the way that some Internet forums can do. I don't think there's anything (apart from the old forum software!) which would prevent a new person from signing up, starting a log and otherwise contributing. I started a log on HTLAL about 18 months ago now so I'm relatively new but within my first few weeks of posting I had already had all sorts of invaluable advice from other TAC team members in my log and there are so many people I am grateful to for their support and comments there. I think that the openness and welcoming character is one of the most important things about this community and something which really distinguishes it from other places online.
I therefore think there is a risk that an off-topic section of any future forum could damage that atmosphere, insofar as it could lead to a percevied division between those who are very active posting there and those who only post in the language logs, for example. Particularly if there are a lot of arguments there. I know from experience that it can be quite intimidating trying to sign up to a discussion group or forum where a) it feels like everyone else knows each other really well and have all sorts of in-jokes which aren't comprehensible to newbies or b) where there are a lot of heated discussions where people seem to get very angry with each other very quickly. As an exmaple of what I mean, anyone who is familiar with Esperanto might know that there is some debate as to whether the accented characters can be best represented by x's or h's. If you're not familiar with Esperanto you might find it hard to believe quite how violently some people feel on either side of this debate
I once posted a beginner's question on an Esperanto forum using the so-called x-method in some Esperanto text which I wanted help with translating (quite innocently) and accidentally sparked off a huge public argument between two opposing factions in that community. That played a significant part in making me vehemently opposed to Esperanto in general and prevented me from learning it for about another four years. We don't want situations to arise like that at HTLAL.
On the other hand, I also know from personal experience how great off-topic discussions on forums can be. Sometimes they present wonderful opportunities for members of the community to get to know each other in a more informal setting, and these online interactions can develop into real and lasting friendships in real life. I actually met my future husband via off-topic discussion in a forum for young British Esperanto-speakers in 2006. If that forum had been heavily moderated with only in-Esperanto or about-Esperanto posting allowed, then my life would be radically different right now
I don't know what the right solution is for HTLAL but I hope the examples above show why I think off-topic discussion requires careful thought.
One forum which perhaps might make an interesting comparison to HTLAL is the forum at lernu.net (the Esperanto language website), because that is also a forum with a very international user-base. I think the rules are largely the same as HTLAL; they are possibly stricter about no profanity being allowed and they have fairly standard rules about not provoking hatred. The forum is structured so that there is an Esperanto-language forum (where there are sections where you can discuss pretty much anything, so long as it is in Esperanto) and native-language sub-forums which are supposed to be used by beginners for asking questions about Esperanto in their native language. In practice, the English-langauge sub-forum is the most active one and any discussion which vaguely relates to Esperanto is allowed there. The moderator of that sub-forum is very(!) active and there are sometimes some very acrimonious threads which develop there and are shut down (often when a newbie comes along and proposes some sort of revision to Esperanto without being able to speak it yet, then people who can actually speak it get angry!). I think the friction in that forum often arises because people who don't speak English very fluently (say at A2 level) are trying to communicate quite complex ideas and are either sounding more offensive than they intend to be or misunderstanding other more fluent speakers as having said something more offensive than they actually have. I don't think we would have that international communication issue in any HTLAL forum because everyone here speaks such amazing English
The Esperanto-language threads seem to be less actively moderately and pretty much any subject is acceptable. So, for example, there is currently an 187(!) page thread about the crisis in Ukraine. I can't pretend to have read that entire thread but I'm guessing over the course of 187 pages there have been people who have offended each other, yet overall the discussion has evidently stayed civil enough for the moderators not to need to shut it down. So I think off-topic discussions in target languages can be successful
On a personal note, I think there is a big difference between requesting that we are all civil to one another and respectful of other people's lifestyle choices (which we should all be able to manage!) and trying to enforce a rule whereby we all have to achieve 100% "politically correct" speech all of the time. I suspect there are a lot of us here who consider ourselves to be fairly reasonable and tolerant people who would not intentially use words or expressions that would offend other members of the community, but who don't have the time/inclination/energy to be 100% up to speed with the ever-changing definitions of what is politically correct and what isn't. At work last week, for example, I was told that we aren't allowed to "brain-storm" ideas any more because using that term might offend someone who has epilepsy. I had never heard of that before and have been merrily brain-storming my way through corporate meetings for years. Instead we are now supposed to have "thought-showers", a term which offends me by it's sheer ridiculousness
Despite being gay myself, I confess I get lost with what is supposed to come after T in LGBT acronym and I'd rather be learning Croatian than trying to get up to speed with the intricacies of it on Wikipedia. If someone tells me their preferred pronoun is "zog" then I will always endeavour to refer to them as "zog" and to remind other people to do so if they forget. But if someone complains that I'm discriminating against them by not anticipating the need to add "zog" as an option in the drop-down list on the sign-up page for an event I'm organising, then my patience is likely to wear thin because I think some give and take is needed on both sides. For that reason I would hope we can rely on common sense and general civility prevailing in any future forum, without the need for a set of very prescriptive rules