But if the forum isn't thwarting provable criminal activity, what has it become? What will the community turn into?
I mean the core of the community (we have a bit of a spam issue ATM LOL) will become what it has always been. A community based on open, borderless, permissionless, trustless, decentralized technology we call the blockchain.
The forum is not judge jury and executioner over every contract made on the forum. Learning how to transact and navigate a borderless, permissionless, trustless technology is not always easy or safe. But everyone will learn when it is the new norm!!

We're not talking about a contract, we're talking about criminal extortion. Can default trust members put negs on somebody and then tell them to pay up to remove it? Obviously the community will revolt against such an activity, so why is this any different? Why is this person protected to try to extort people into silence? Why is staff not policing the rules about illegal activity? Report is still "unhandled".