I'll leave the discussion whether you want to start a national forum or want something under the umbrella or a European/international forum up to you.
But some points about deskthority, you may or may not like 'em so take these into consideration:
Deskthority is not the anti-geekhack. I'm just one of the guys in admin (there are 3 more), and we wanted to start an international oriented keyboard site, and one of our main influences has been OTD. Whatever happened between me and geekhack and what I think and say of it, I do it as a member, not as deskthority admin.
We lack a certain amount of control by design. In general, as long as it ain't spam and it is legal, it is allowed. This is because we aspire to be keyboard enthusiasts, not forum moderators, and we are (in general) grown men. It's like this: when 20 men join in a public place to discuss something they love, would you like it if two started to "take control" of the discussion, and throwing out one guy they don't like, while silencing some others because they don't conform? We neither, nor do we want to be them. If someone says something we don't like, we deal with it. Whether that is totally realistic if the forum grows is another question, but we'll see.
What is possible on deskthority is what you make of it. Not by what you're limited to. In fact, it is a requirement. We're just some guys and this is a young, fresh forum, if you want it to go a certain way to support a french section of your design, you should make it happen, we're not doing it for you or telling you how to do it. We've daytime jobs, you know
