I wasn’t there for the decision to build LW2.0 as a new Forum, but I imagine doing so allowed for a lot more freedom to build a forum that served the desired purpose in many ways.
Oliver Habryka (aka Discordius in this comment), who runs Lightcone Infrastructure, described some of the history of LW 2.0, and of his thoughts about reviving the site, in the ~first subheading of this podcast transcript. And he goes into more depth on his thinking about LW in the rest of the big first section. (The rest of the looong podcast transcript covers other topics which are likely not of general interest.)
Quoting Ruby from upthread:
Oliver Habryka (aka Discordius in this comment), who runs Lightcone Infrastructure, described some of the history of LW 2.0, and of his thoughts about reviving the site, in the ~first subheading of this podcast transcript. And he goes into more depth on his thinking about LW in the rest of the big first section. (The rest of the looong podcast transcript covers other topics which are likely not of general interest.)