The problem is that no one with the power to do anything about the forums actually wants to do anything. Even among all the complaining about the forums, there is no desire to improve anything. Everyone just wants to casually ***** and moan and then go back to ignoring the problems. There hasn't been any real leadership on the forums since Mosley and Justin, and despite practically every active member trying to help in some way, all that's ever done by the upper staff is more *****ing. Moderators try to handle basic day-to-day operations without any kind of leadership whatsoever. For all intents and purposes, the site has no administration period. It hasn't had any in a long, long time. Yet, again, the slightest attempt to improve the forums and the community is met with opposition (largely be people who are no longer involved in ZD, no less!).
Moreover, there seems to be a general attitude amongst both some upper staff and some members that the forums are filled with hostility and anti-mod attitudes, yet there is really no evidence of this. The ZD forums themselves are extremely mild compared to literally every other forum I've seen. No forum will ever be completely peaceful, the very attempt to make it as such brings resentment and hostility. In my experience, nearly all the "hostility" or "mud-slinging" or whatever, has been on the part of people who would rather sit far away from the actual community and make the occasional passing jab at this group or that group. As far as I can tell, the only people who actually want to do anything about the forums, hell, even the site itself, are those who are never allowed to. There is an extremely stagnant statist attitude among so many people, including Locke. When issues are brought up, it's either "no everything is fine", or "the forums are not the main attraction". The latter is especially ridiculous because of the fact that the forums are literally the only reason ZD still exists as a community. You can talk about walkthroughs and content all you want, but that hasn't been the thing keeping people on ZD for many years, and I think everyone knows that.
The biggest problem is that no one with the power to do so is willing to act. Everyone seems to be caught in a loop of not being sure about their jurisdiction or not sure about this or that, needing input from an admin, etc. I think the problem is worse than a lack of leadership; there's what seems to be complete apathy to the point that people are so deluded they will believe anything no matter how absurd, so long as they don't have to do anything.