Wow, this is one crazy thread. And crazy in the sence of Norman Bates.
I'm relatively new here, but I like this place so here are my 2 cents;
Mad, if you want to make this work, there should be (a minimum of) rules.
Right now you're handing out warnings & bans in full Roger Goodell style; probably with good intentions, but still purely at random. It is unclear what is allowed and what not and you are the one who decides right or wrong as you please.
I'm not advocating to turn this into the next muzzled mainstream packerforum where you cannot discuss the owner or other members or where you cannot use foul language (CUNT!), quite the contrary; the craziness (in the sence of Ron Artest) is one of the things take makes this place worth visiting. But total anarchy won't work either so there should be some extremely basic level of 'justice' somewhere.
So go to another forum, c/p their rules, scrap almost everything in colaboration with some of 'the elderly' here. Post what's left of it in a sticky thread for everyone to see and that's that. There will still be criticism afterwards, but at least there will be some sort of transparancy in your actions.
Regarding the major technical issues and general maintenance of the forum; I understand this is one of the less pleasant tasks of being an owner, but it's still part of the job and it should be taken care of.
Sure it would be nice to have some new members, but I don't think PR should aim to become a big forum; it fills the bipolar knowledgeable-but-dysfunctional niche quit nicely. I expect a couple of new faces to pop up as soon as there actually will be football. All the bigger forums I visit are in a state of summersleep as well at this point; there is just not a whole lot going on to discuss.