People trying too hard to make epic threads, perhaps? I wouldn't notice, I hardly check the forums. The forums are like separated from where I roam these days and these days I have no purpose. It's like I have to step out of my room to go into another room, just to see what's going on. I find it too bothersome.

The new website will even be more information overload and more things to keep me away from the forums.

So, just waiting...

health of discussion i've felt has been on a rollercoaster the last few months, which is better than the desert we were in for most of 2011. In the last week, for instance, i haven't felt the need to post in much of anywhere, but before that things felt better

My take on the problem is that the three manufacturer camps have just kind of settled into their own little worlds, accepting an orthodoxy of coexistence (which is not a bad thing, but can lead to forum stagnation as it has). My take on it is that Nintendo fans are feeling disillusioned after the 2007-early 2010 heyday of sales, Sony fans are satisfied that PS3 and PSP dug themselves out of the pit of failure and performed reasonably well, and Microsoft fans which have always been a quasi-independent community here. Nobody really wants to stir the pot, and few people seem that jazzed about either 3DS or Vita, but for varying reasons

No-one is willing to stir the pot in a way that is not blatant trolling, is the issue. The picture of happy coexistence we all seem to accept is not quite reality, but then the challenges to the status quo are usually too extreme

Yes, I think this is the heart of the issue. Pulling each others' legs is a good thing, but the opposite camps aren't as friendly to each other, some people trolled too much and made the other crowd upset, some get offended too easily. I talked about that in the media create thread. We need some even more advanced moderation for trolling, where when people are having fun pulling each others' legs its cool, but otherwise it's just pure trolling. But how to achieve that I honestly don't know! :D

I've got 12 post per day, how's that for spontaneous posting!?

I think montana listed most of the reasons. Too many site changes aswell, everything is harder to find now and long avatars don't help reading the forum. I don't even have sigs on and some single posts take up one page due to avatars, currently playing, badges and whatever the P symbol with the numbers next to it means.

Also some of the mods chased away many of the posters, users were getting banned for no reason while others were allowed to troll away. User 1 gets banned for doing A, while user 2 stays for doing A,B and C. Moderation appears to be better now and users are allowed to post more freely.

It does seem to be a still a little out of control but it has gotten better, for sure!

I liked this site between 07-10
It was not as slick back then which I liked. Kind of like the first few years of Rolling Stone, now R.S.is a slick boring rag
Plus we didn't have to pay for the the top 200
My wife thinks I'm to old this site

We lost a lot of good users too. If you guys still have contact with them you should try to drag them back.

My goal is to be the oldest account on this site, so all is going according to plan.....

Honestly I think it has to do with the console gen kind of stagnating, along with some of the redesigns. Maybe this is just nostalgia, but I remember the hot topic section being way more prominent on the main page, which is where I would usually go, but then it kind of got shoved to the side. Also I want to say that the "Forum Buddy" was present on the main page too, not just when you're in the forums. Or i just made all that shit up, I mean my account is getting old and senile, who knows.