Having a semi-gated community can work. One of the best places for statistics/business/intelligent discussion in baseball is sonsofsamhorn.net - you need to get

Having a semi-gated community can work. One of the best places for statistics/business/intelligent discussion in baseball is sonsofsamhorn.net - you need to get invited to get a membership, but there's a "Sandbox" that non-members can post to. Anyone can read SOSH, but the quality stays high due to mostly only qualified members posting/discussing.