Forums + Overall high activity = Good advertising move to pull in the smart players.
I always use server forums as a way to tell how active the GM's and players are. GM's hosting an English server who do not act professional in a way with their English are very unattractive. GM's are GM's. They're not players. They may be player's when they're not on duty but when they're supposed to be GM's, they're supposed to be GM's.
Also, what server wouldn't have forums? Trying to contact GM's only when they're in-game is a very slow server in my opinion. You might as well go play iRO and wait for a GM to log on to ask them a question. Oh wait, GM's on iRO only log on in a blue moon.