i do not pretend to be a laywer (only on saturday nights at the club)... but i dont see how the board can get sued over the postings in a smack forum... a simple disclaimer would be all thats needed to protect the board from the actions of its members...
CBS sportsline has a large community posting board type thing and you read all kind of inappropriate comments, about a players homosexuality, about other posters themselves... etc... heres a post calling all Eskimos inbreds
http://www.sportsline.com/mcc/messages/chrono/2927883
and i think CBS is in a much larger public eye than this board... yet they dont seem to have any problems...
how about a suggestion, make the depths a protected board so its not visible to guests and non-registered people, so it wont show up in search engines and things of that nature... you can also make it a forum you need to access by filling out some sort of release/application stating anything you say or post is of your own accord and not associated with finheaven who will not be held liable by anything read or posted in the forum, blah blah, etc...
when people agree to this specific application thing they gain access to the forum...
there has to be a reasonable way to allow that board to stick around... im just trying to throw out suggestions