I think the less we model oursleves after other sites the better. Chat rooms, collector forum, beach buggy forum, etc... the other sites have those things. If that was all so much better, we would be there instead of here. I like this site as it is unique in many ways. If you want to burn spots, PM me and I'll give you CT's best site for that...
I do like the idea of having an updated article forum/page, though. Perhaps a couple vollunteers could assist in "proofreading" submissions. Anyone that wanted to put the time in to write an article could submit it to the group of critics. If the articles passes the majority approval of the group, it goes onto the article page.