Has Gmaxwell actually left, he was logged on fairly recently?
We still have users from quite a long time ago still however, like
ThomasV.
And Theymos is obviously still here.
Lack of innovation is the one I guess killing the forum. In addition with you example:
Consider Facebook in 2010/11 and now. Back in those days Facebook used to look like a simple php driven website and now it a massive application with enormous features.
Bad example: I liked Facebook more back then, before they forced a timeline and started deciding for me what I want to see (because they earn from it).
I've seen several forums "innovate", and in all cases I liked the old version better. For me, a forum doesn't have to change it's looks and behaviour once it works well and I know where to find stuff. A forum upgrade would also mean existing scrapers won't work anymore.
I do like the added Merit though, and I'd love to see more upgrades like it.
That's true, with every facebook and messenger update I always sit wondering what they could possible have done to make it any different from how it was that would benefit the user (I think a lot of stuff they do now is for maximising profit). I don't think your data had as much value in 2010 (there's also the google incident and how they've changed what was a perfectly good logo). ?
He waited four days for a pizza, maybe that's why he left!
$43 back then was enough for at least 2 pizzas and no one took him up on it for four days (that being said, I hadn't even heard of bitcoin back then but I was very young so that's my excuse)...