I think a local forum would be a great idea. I do not trust sites like Google or Yahoo to protect our privacy, so I won't join or participate in conversations hosted there, and I steadfastly refuse to join Facebook (it's evil). I would, however, greatly enjoy a local forum to talk about subjects near and dear to SOL'ers. My vote, should the question arise, would be yes to having a forum here on SOL.
I do recognize that a moderator would be necessary, and perhaps there would be a need for some rules. I'm not sure how it would work, but I believe it COULD work, if we don't dump it all on Lazeez.