Is It Really About Forum "Culture"?

People may be fleeing other unnamed forums that have power hungry mods that make the other forum(s) unenjoyable to use, for example...

But if the same people come to Digg and they bring the same attitudes, we get the same kind of result (barring structural coding choices or other policies in place to prevent that kind of thing)

So is it really about having a kind of "internet culture" that allows people to create meaningful forum interactions, that people seek?

What are the qualities of such "forum culture" that you are looking for and think help support purposeful forum exchanges?