yes, there are plenty of free forums. This is not sensitive information.... I mean, the link is in the footer of the boads. People will start up sites... and that is fine.... when I started up, I had to ask questions and what not.
Now, the site became successful when I paved my own path for the site though... we used our own software and what-not.
Flashchat by Tufat, just google it, it costs $5. Warning... it does use a lot of bandwidth.... which is why many people opt not to use Flashchat.
We survived for a couple years using free solutions (or near free solutions).... but as a site grows, its impossible to stay free. JUST for our server alone... that is $170 per month. These statistics make many sites fold because most cannot find a way to bring up that kind of cash per month.
BV :hat