So we've lost Dread, and his wife Zoya?
Is this a regular forum, not designed for gaming specifically, and we're going to use it as such? If so, if it's our DMs will, I will defer to him. But I would recommend looking into a site called plothook. It's a very good gaming site designed for Play-by-Post D&D campaigns. I played and ran many successful campaigns on the site in the past. It was similar in format to RPOL, but I found worked even better than RPOL did.
You would request from the site admins your own game forum. Only players in your game would be allowed to post in the forum, and the DM could very easily manage the game from there. I haven't been there in a while, but last time I was there, there had been talk about developping an integrated dice roller (so no cheating) and also an integrated character sheet manager... DM JZ, if you'd like, I can go over there and check it out with you sometime, and we could discuss if running a campaign there is a good method for you.
The reason Dread didn't play there was because his wife Zoya had a falling out with one of the site admins. I remain on good terms with them though, although not as close as I used to be...
Now this is all because I know little of this site. I used Paizo to buy my Pathfinder materials, and never explored their forums. Maybe it's an excellent site, but it's always good to consider other options if it'll lead to an easier and/or more fulfilling gaming experience. And especially for a new DM, I find plothook was very easy.
Anyways, just my two cents there. Again, Golden Rule is the decision maker. :) But message me JZ if you want to know more about the other site.