Is this the official forum?

No. Stellar doesn't have an official forum. All the forums are community run.

so how do I make sure the developers read my ideas?

You can use Facebook, Medium or Reddit and the offical pages of Stellar if you want your ideas to be heard

You can contact them directly, just search for the contacts in any of the social nets or on the site

I guess if you have something to tell to the developers, some kind of suggestions, you can write to the support of Stellar team