Before I start, I have never administered a forum but I imagine it to be a lot of hard, unselfish, often thankless work. The criticism I make does not go without the recognition of that.

From what I infer from the rules and policies, the forum aims to maintain a small tight group of active participants, weeding out inactive ones. I agree with the noble intent of this but in my opinion, it has evolved into something somewhat elitist. To put it in its proper perspective, I am admittedly biased . . . something akin to a mildly disgruntled employee but instead a returning but demoted member from the onset of the latest reincarnation of the board. Even given that admission of bias, I wonder if a quiet board is a consequence of the success of these policies?

I suppose it is by (unintentional?) design but the current structure is not as attractive to new (or returning) active membership as before. Of course, I mean this in relative terms and it is not meant to say there is nothing attractive about the board as it is now but as people move on, I wonder if they will be replaced at the same rate? Perhaps that is of no concern.

I suppose the dissident nature of this post may result in something between its deletion and an admonishment to an outright ban of my IP (my potential farewell). That would be telling in itself. In contrast, BilbleBasher and Krip used to have outright brawls within the forum that went uncensored and unpunished to a large extent for the benefit of us all.