I agree... I think that the Role Playing Game Forum should spread out a bit, and a Lounge idea is some thing I would highly push for. That way, we could put a lot of stickied topics (such as the AWAY topic and the Idea topic) into the lounge, and make this forum the primary forum for actual role play.
I started the RPG News, and I firmly believe that bringing it back would be fun to try again. I'd start it again if anyone would allow me, and we could place that in the Lounge as well. It would also help discussion and more communication amongst the Role Players, so that way we wouldn't have to go through PMs all the time or discussion in the RPGs themselves.
As for the 'approval' of an idea, I'm not totally opposed to that. I agree that designating 'approval' people, other than the moderators, would be a good idea. However, I believe if a moderator has approved of an RPG then I doubt anyone else should need to approve it. That would be slightly tedious... and suggestions or ideas could be taken care of in the Idea topic.
I'm not opposed to any of those ideas. There could be some cons about having an 'approval' topic, but I'm not fully aware about what those might be. Right now, the RPG forum itself is a little slow so I wouldn't want to do anything that would slow it down further. But great ideas and I'm glad you've put those ideas to light again.
EDIT: I agree with putting away the ASB/RPG forum. It's not moving fast enough to keep it... and archiving it would be a better option. It was a good thought, but it's just not doing anything sitting there. As for the old topics in the RPG forum... I'm not sure if we could get an archive forum, that's some thing to ask the admins for... but I think it would be a good idea. I wouldn't want to delete good RPGs, because they're good to occasionally go back and read (yes, I like to do that... :p ) or to get ideas or draw from.