It's a shame to see you go, especially in this manner, because, in the past, you've done a lot for this forum. It's also worth noting that a lot of the changes that you suggested have actually been implemented, so it's not as though you were not being listened to.
I find it disappointing that you've decided to make certain allegations which don't mirror the reality of the situation, so I'm going to disagree with your analysis about forums in general. As a member of a large number of forums, I assure you that it is the case that traffic and activity are down on all of them. Even the forum where the software we use is produced, which has a massive membership, and very loose rules, has seen a significant drop in activity in the last couple of years. Other wargaming forums have dropped off too. I won't name them all, as members here can find them easily enough, should they wish to, but in nearly all cases, they are not as active as they used to be.
There also appears to be an implication in your post that it's you who is upset by the current activity levels on the forum, and that somehow the rest of us don't care. I could be misreading this, so you're welcome to correct me, and I actually hope you do, because I would really like to be mistaken about this. The fact of the matter is that, speaking for myself, I do care, and I would like to see a lot more activity. The Staff cannot, however, collectively hold a gun to the heads of members and make them post. In addition, posting for the sake of posting is bad, as it doesn't lead to any sort of quality discussion.
To deal with your second off base claim regarding certain members leaving in a cluster. We lost a whole raft of members at roughly the same time back in 2011/2012. This had nothing to do with issues raised by anyone in recent times, and had everything to do with people moving on to new projects, and/or giving up the game. We lost a lot of experienced people, particularly on the Eldar boards, and when you lose a lot of experienced users, it creates a void in posting.
One such former active contributor to the site even dropped in to confirm this version of events, and there are others who no longer frequent the forum for the same reasons.
When a forum loses so a lot of experienced members in a cluster like that, new blood needs to come through to replace them, but, on the whole, it hasn't done so. This is for, in my view, three fundamental reasons:
1. The rise of Facebook, Twitter and Blogs: I loathe these forms of communication. I think that they are lazy, sloppy, filled with spam, flaming, and trolling, and are echo chambers, in which everybody nods their head like the Churchill dog to agree with the owner. Unfortunately, a lot of the younger generation seems to like these platforms, owing to the instant responses, regardless of how good these responses might be. 'Generation instant' is how they are sometimes referred to by the media. How true that is, I'm not sure, I'll try to ask some of my students next semester to see what their views are. Suffice to say, however, that the younger generation, and let's not forget, GW wants to cater for them far more than the veterans, because they're the ones who spend the most money at GW stores, has moved away from forums and into other forms of social media.
2. The loss of up-to-date content: The fact that nobody has re-written the army guides for sixth edition, that the front page lacks new articles, and there are not many in-depth discussions going on, caused mainly by the loss of so many experienced players who produced this material (see above) means that we're not recruiting enough new members. People want to see content, but at the moment there isn't much to see, because there are not enough people around to produce it.
The sad thing for me Chuckles is that you were capable of producing such content. I invited you on two separate occasions to help out, saying that I had a list of things you could help with, and you never took me up on the offer. You could have helped, and you chose not to. I make no judgement either way, as it was entirely up to you, I just make the observation.
3. The server: Every time we have a server crash, we seem to lose more members. We've had far too many server problems in the last two years, and it is the last two years that we've lost even more members. I don't think that this is a coincidence. People get very frustrated by server problems, and if they are not long standing members of the forum who are used to it, then they just leave. It's annoying enough for those of us who are regulars, so new members must really hate it. Kindred and Raine are both working very hard to solve the problem, but it's not the work of the moment. Transferring a site as large as this one from one server to another is difficult, so please bear with them.
Finally, on the charge that the Staff is lying, or is in self-denial is untrue. I think that I can speak for all the active Staff when I say that we all know that there is a problem, and we keep trying to do things to fix it. In view of the problems I have outlined above, however, it is rather difficult. All that I ask, and other Staff can add their own comments if they wish, is that you (that's all of you reading this) stay positive, keep contributing, and don't give up. By falling into a mindset of 'nobody contributes anything, so why should I?' all that happens is that even fewer people contribute, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. The way to keep the place at least ticking over is just to keep posting what you can, and I hope that you'll continue to do so.
