I'd like to comment that this forum of yours isnt off to a good start. You must realize the amount of work that you have to personally put into one of these projects to get it started and keep it going. Without boon23's continual dedication, and massive amount of work, FE would never be where it is today. reEdit magazine had a big start, but those running it weren't willing to dedicate their personal time to it, and thus it failed. You have already mentioned that you didn't want to be the only one adding content. Unfortunately you are going to have to do a lot of start up work if you want this place to succeed. Only then will people see that this is a worthwhile place, and offer to help out.
You've gotten off to a bad start by placing the no rapidshare, and mediafire only preferred rule. There are a LOT of people here who prefer rapidshare. You dont here about it much, because those you do here from are the bitchers. By limiting your choices of download/upload, you will alienate a LOT of people. We accept and use pretty much every outlet here. torrent, rapidshare, mediafire, etc. It just happens that torrents and rapdishare are the most popular. Torrents, easy, because its free and most people want to pay nothing. Rapishare because of the reliability for premium users, and the relatively low fees. No other service has been able to provide that consistently. Thats why you see so much RS use here. I am not advertising RS by any account, however, that is just the current state here. Perhaps mediafire will continue to improve and stay consistent. Its not for me to predict or decide what gets used. As of now I see it as a cool service, but a flash-in-the-pan.
So far, we see nothing at the preservation forum. I hope that changes, and you become more flexible to things. You have to market the place and work hard for it to be successful. Fanedit.org did not happen over night, it wasnt free for the admins and owners, and it didnt get big by itself. It was a lot of work, dollars and love to get it off the ground. I hope that one day your idea and forum can do that, just realize what goes into making a place successful.