Some factors that made me lose interest in this site:

-Some users still expressing particular viewpoints when it comes to preferred consoles and not showing any improvements to better themselves 5 years later gets tiring (idc if I get banned for saying this).
-Had some bad blood with a few users some years ago in Skype which sorta demotivated me to come here super often, even if those people are long gone in my life now.
-Declining interest in some game events I used to host here, now it seems no one cares anymore lol.
-I find game discussion on sites like Twitter and Reddit more appropriate for my life style nowadays, since I feel I don't have time to scroll through a bunch of threads with topics I don't care about, or the same question/poll type threads with the same topics I've seen before.

Only reason I stick around here is to occasionally update Game DB stuff, which is not super often, or speak my mind in topics I do find interesting, which only happens on average, 1-2 times a week.

These are just personal factors, these definitely don't apply to everyone, and it's probably not gonna provide good advice for this problem, just my personal input and viewpoint.

I haven't seen anyone (In this thread, at least) disparage the work done by the people you mentioned.  I'm pretty sure everyone appreciates everything they do.  I know I do.  

But, the whole point of this thread is to discuss possible causes and solutions to the reduction in traffic here.  As such, mentions of technical issues, dislikes, and basically anything else of the sort strike me as constructive criticism, if it can even be considered criticism at all.  

Further, declines in other forums do not change the fact that we're seeing declines in traffic here.  People love this place, and they want to preserve it, regardless of what happens to gamefaqs or any other site.  

With that said, I know it's tough for the people that put so much work into this site to read a thread about problems.  I encourage you all to try to look at it in the spirit in which it (presumably) was intended - helpful.  

1) Oh yeah, for sure. Sorry, didn't mean to just sound as if I wasn't trying to offer anything helpful, it's just that I don't know the specifics of this stuff so my descriptions might sound dumb lol. :P Would you happen to actually know why this site shows up as not secure for people? I've always seen it but never known why and I could see that turning people off from posting if they think it's unsafe doing so. I also feel like the layout where it's basically just everything from top to bottom could be better improved if things were possibly compressed to show more on the screen at once. As i'm attempting to scroll back up on the main site on mobile it's also taking really long because it's dragging down the entire page as well instead of just scrolling back up.

2) It's not exactly my sole example of it, it's just one of the more recent ones i've had where it was for some reason super complicated and basically impossible to find an old thread, where as usually on any other site you can quickly find through a website/google search. The only way I actually ended up being able to find some older threads (even some from 2008) was by going through ioi's post history because I remembered him posting in that thread lmao, so surely they must still exist then? It's just finding them specifically that is weird for some reason. :P So basically any thread that is 90+ days old is unsearchable then unless we can find the specific link through other means? If so that's a shame. :(

Well, unlike that place you're describing, this forum is not a huge hive mind 

Edit: I think another problem is that sadly the site's numbers have the bad fame of being unreliable so less people are willing to check for numbers here.

Cant expect this place to be active when theres rarely ever worthwhile conversations to be had 🤷
Whenever I come back all I see is non gaming stuff or fanboy BS, shit when I find a thread that seems interesting it usually just ends up being filled with petty drama and arguing anyway
The website has an identity crisis, the place is dated but the conversation lends itself to the younger generation who have the time to waste with online video game drama.

And the question is does the postban effect the banned badges?

I think two more points should be noted: Competition and fatigue.Ill name people just for the sake of giving examples, I dont mean to fight or to provoke anyone.

Competition is pretty obvious.Discord have sucked alot of traffic from (probably) alot of forums, since it is more convenient for alot of people.

But I think that, at least for VGC, fatigue is the biggest problem of all.Not necessarily from the forum itself, but rather from its users.Its hard to explain, but I think that everyone who has been here at least two years or so understand the feeling its ideas being dismissed or disliked, of ideas that you are so passioned about and people brushing it off or being agressive.

And I mean, thats no one fault.I think we all here are passionate about a game or another, and about one or two topics.And the same will be true about the opossite, about people being completely oppossed about a stance or another.That on itself isnt a problem.Most of the users can take the hit and move on, or understands that its all a discussion and thats how things work.But then it happens one time.Then two.Then five.Then 10 times.By the time you noticed, you are either so used to the forum or so tired of your opinions being either treated as "garbage" or stupid, that you either lash out, or get tired of participating.

Just to give an example of this:I am certainly part of this trend, having recently discussed with Chazore on a similar level, when he made the topic about Epic buying Psyonix.I am one that dosent care that much about PC gaming(though I do play on PC) and favor more consoles, and Chazore is one that loves PC and(and thats my impression) cares little if nothing about consoles.So obviosly we didnt see eye to eye.But since I already had an history with him, here and on discord, I already started the discussion with my left foot.And while it was wrong, I will admit I enjoyed it.And I think thats one of the biggest problems of this forum.People, myself included, eventually takes things personally.I have been blocked off from Versus profile, I have been called a Nintendo fanboy worse than goodnightschroom(I think thats his name) by Pokoko(why, only god knows).

And that accumulates.And people stop discussing with you, with your threads.And you do the same.And thus the cycle continues.Thats why new users are so important, but they are not joining by the reasons people have already stated here.

I dont know, I dont think VGC is that bad in terms of engagement, but yeah we arent as active as Resetera.But I think thats also the reason why you feel as you do about this forum Zuzek, being so small that you know most users.

Thats cuz giving critism without proof and mindless bashing is the best way to give feedback, didnt you know Talon?

well i seen discord mentioned a few times. so i googled it.

Looks like a fancier IRC tbh with voice chat added lol.

Says the guy who cant recognise true alts lul