I've helped out theOtaku over the past few years as well as its forums, and I have to say, without James, OtakuBoards wouldn't be where they are today. He's made all the right decisions pretty much everytime, and his ideas are what keeps these forums floating. :).
Taylow Hewitt: You should register yourself a domain name at [URL=http://www.godaddy.com]GoDaddy.com[/URL] , it is only 9 bucks. Then afterwards, you should check into Velegant Hosting, extremly cheap and a good way to help out theOtaku :), should be launching soon enough.
Sky3: Yeh, I remember the old forums. They used the Infopop software. Spamming was a HUGE problem, and I can remember certain names that come to mind [surpisingly enough]. I think that since Adam went to vBulletin, its improved quite a bit. As well as with James in control :).
There is a lot of things that most users here don't know about in what goes behind the scenes, how much work everyone puts into this place, as well as money. In the end, its all worth it :D