I'd love to see an active completely "safe" board of some sort evolve into being somewhere. It's not about work-cowardice or morality or anything, but rather about having some place to link which is completely safe - preferrably not nerdy either, people tend to be so sensitive to anything not pink and fluffy.
That way, people could link there either to show off some post or to show how cool the entire system is. If people would realized that they can setup something similar themselves, they'd trick themselves into thinking that they can make something really cool, and every now and then someone might just manage to do that.
Outside of the *chan realm, I've seen one gun website which had imageboard software...once again, it was a lot more crappy than what we have around here, but the basic working system was there.
The problem with the internet is that it is open to pretty much everyone, especially image board software based sites. Do you know why goatse.cx got suspended? Because the complainant saw it pop up in the online fora of the United Nations.
What I want to say is that trolls, smutpendlers and everything that is not dear to the eyes of some will eventually find its way along on the internet. Sure, on some sites with little traffic months might pass before this happens, but in the end, it will, if only for a little time.