I've found it a challenge to find threads I was looking for pertaining to articles and thread duplicity exacerbates that issue.
I would link every article to the forum thread specific to that article so that the two are forever linked. That makes it much easier to find what one is looking for as well as reduce the rate of duplicitous threads (I think I found five different threads, at least, pertaining to the TRX).
As far as moparinsiders, 5thgenrams, and HDrams, I don't understand that. I would have created one main site with three subsites:
moparmadness.com
insiders.moparmadness.com
5thgenrams.moparmadness.com
HDrams.moparmadness.com
Or, conversely:
moparmadness.com
moparmadness.com/insiders
moparmadness.com/5thgenrams
moparmadness.com/HDrams
That way, everything is under the same authentication/database, but can still be linked separately.
Allpar has a cleaner, less cluttered look, and I have found it easier to find what I'm looking for in the forums, but the constant barrage of negativity is unappealing. It doesn't affect my fondness for Mopar, but makes me want to visit the site a whole lot less often. As to forums vs. comments . . . I spend more time in forums than leaving comments because the people in forums seem to be much more knowledgeable. The things I see in article comments are just ludicrously stupid sometimes. You see that in a forum on occasion, but not nearly as often. The internet is the wild west, so that is to be expected, but the sorts of people who take the time to get into the forums tend to be more serious minded people and I greatly appreciate those interactions. Some comments are so far out there they don't warrant any attention at all.