Good questions and I'll try to answer them as a prospective candidate. Thank you Texrat for your invitation in this thread.

Question 1:

First off I don't believe this forum ever was a developers forum. As GeneralAntilles said it has, is, and perhaps always will be an enthusiasts forum. I also agree with qole in his assertion that nothing has changed with the influx of N900 users.

Using your example of Eternal September referring to the the influx of freshmen, I believe if you examine the join dates of some of the "old-timers" responsible for some of the negative comments, you may see that they were not "old timers" at all.
Most of these snarky responses that I have seen came from members who joined a few months or at most a year before the new member asking the question.

Continuing with your example, sort of like a freshman room mate who got in first and picked the good bed and moved the dresser before you got there. Someone I will call "The eternal sophomore".

Question 2 :

This forum started out device oriented and not OS oriented. It was a privately owned, publicly viewed forum and as such had a benevolent dictator in Reggie, the owner. Then it was acquired by maemo.org and in a noble experiment, every member of maemo.org seemed to have a voice in its direction. This may have contributed to some of the eternal sophomore's empowerment. Unfortunately these sophomores are also the ones who most likely are, as GeneralAntilles put it, "not interested in sticking out for the long-term and they're not interested in contribution."

With MeeGo quickly approaching and the need for support for legacy Maemo devices, I believe that the forums should return to a device specific group of forums. Each device, legacy and new, should have its own forum with no more than 4 or 5 sub-forums for device specific subjects.

Each forum could establish its own style, moderation, and own specific posting guidelines as long as these do not contradict any general posting guidelines. The style and moderation of these forums will then come more naturally based on posting volume.

I also believe that the administration of the forums should return to an identified, perhaps council appointed, benevolent dictator.
This way the elected council would be accountable for the forums administration but not responsible for the day to day operation.

How can this help?

For one, it would put posts in better context. However the specific you used in your opening was "after sale support forum":

Enthusiasts will always come here after acquiring a new device. The specific forum for this device could, and should provide that new member with answers other than RTFM.
However, it is also my belief that this community should not be used by any manufacturer as a cheaper alternative to providing full customer support for the devices it intends to sell.
IMHO, this is something that needs to be looked at very carefully going forward. However, at this time a community council's input into matters such as this has not yet been clearly defined for me. But then again I'm slow like that.

BTW, one of the reasons I love this forum is that eventually all your questions will be answered.