I totally agree with you. You're right about the fact that this period without music actuality made die the forum. But, no actuality doesn't absolutely mean "no activity on the forum"... If we had things to do on the forum, it would not be in a long sleep...!
Your idea to link the forum with something like Twitter is really cool, it's a mean to react about Sam's news directly ;)
A good update is needed here, and, as you've said it, there must be a link between the website and the forum. Why don't they add a widget on the website's homepage with the hot topics of the forum? Another idea to add to the list...
And I think we need to speak about it to Sam, Jesse, and Universal Music. Actually, it's Universal that is administrating the forum, not really Jesse and Sam, but they probably have a role in the background. I will tweet them the topic ;)
Happy Holiday to you too ;)