The reason the d-list never attracted this kind of criticism is because of the flat structure. That every post is always seen by every viewer of the d-list acts as a strong moderation to post topics which affect BM as a whole and not any individual continent, realm or other subset.
Subforums are too effective at filtering and hiding posts. This results in navel gazing conclaves. Continent subforums are especially poisonous, as half of the people there will support anything you say and the other half you hate the guts of, depending which side of the war you are on.
I suggest resolving the forum into a minimalist flat structure. The only subforums would be General Discussion and Development. The parts other than BM (M&F WI etc) don't change obviously.
I'm not sure about flattening the forum entirely, but I do think you're on to something here. If forum users are getting a bit too cliquey posting almost solely on Atamara or Dwilight boards etc. perhaps there should be some sort of merger of the locals boards? Perhaps collapse them into Stable Islands (Atamara, Colonies, East Continent, Far East) and Testing Islands (Beluaterra, Dwilight) and you will hopefully start to see a wider mix of posters and fewer people put-off from participating in discussions.
