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). ?
Facebook is now too much with monetizing data that's where it is going wrong IMO.
I am not sure if everyone is facing this problem or not... it takes longer time to load the contents on FB now a days especially when I use it from my computer.
Anyway my point was adding some features like: receive notification when someone mentioning your username, a follow button or something that will enable your to receive notifications when your favorite user create a topic or post a comment etc. Some new features for better user experience.
Yes, I do like the merit feature and I am sure there are a lot of people like me who finds extra energy to do more because their work gets recognized.