AIGA Design Forum

I was recently pointed to the AIGA Design Forum, which I think is an interesting discussion forum design that uses a weblog-like format for what they call "Articles" and "Discussions".

Notice that the basic elements of the articles and discussions are weblog-style tools, yet the site stops short of having an actual weblog or weblogs (no permalinks/trackbacks/blogroll/ etc.). It's like weblog entries and comments have taken the place of threaded discussion/message board tools. I'm still trying to figure out what I think about this.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this kind of design? I'm reminded of Scott Moore's recent comment that it's "all just data".