Could this be the reason I can't get my vB forums spidered?

[rnmcd]

I have a few vBulletin forums and they are all lame.

I can't get any traffic and that could be because my forums are lame or, vice versa, my forums are because I can't get any traffic.

Tonight I was wondering if the reason I can't get spidered or indexed is because I've always put my forums in a directory structured like this:
www.mywebsite/forums/

BUT I forward the URL, mywebsite.com, to www.mywebsite/forums/

I forward the domain by using my registrar's control panel for the domain.

Do you think the search engines think I'm doing something underhanded by forwarding my domain to a subdirectory?