Post count is pretty outrageous these days. Do the mods generally scrap the 'annoucement' forum at some point?

This forum won't be deleted, however active forums are pruned of old posts regularly.

Oblivion General, Morrowind General, Fallout 3 General, etc. all started off as in-development discussion forums just like this one - they don't even need to be renamed after the game is released. When Skyrim hits the shelves a number of forums will be added to this section but Skyrim General will remain largely as it is. By then a lot of the threads in here will have expired but there will be plenty to take their place.

Good question...