Quality and usefulness (which compete with freedom) are things that are always on my mind, but I'm not bothered by popularity. Most people will always use the big, popular platforms, and bitcointalk.org will never compete with them.
Trying to compete with them would require totally changing how the site works, not just tweaking around the edges and adding a fresh coat of paint. (Our next-gen Epochtalk software works fundamentally the same way as the current software, just better.) I tend to agree with poptok1's post.
does anyone have any idea if the number of new members is stagnating (significantly), or not?
We're at a local minimum, but registrations jump around a lot:
+---------------------+---------------+
| 30day starting | registrations |
+---------------------+---------------+
| 2009-11-02 00:00:00 | 3 |
| 2009-12-02 00:00:00 | 8 |
| 2010-01-01 00:00:00 | 8 |
| 2010-01-31 00:00:00 | 22 |
| 2010-03-02 00:00:00 | 5 |
| 2010-04-01 00:00:00 | 22 |
| 2010-05-01 00:00:00 | 15 |
| 2010-05-31 00:00:00 | 33 |
| 2010-06-30 00:00:00 | 325 |
| 2010-07-30 00:00:00 | 159 |
| 2010-08-29 00:00:00 | 148 |
| 2010-09-28 00:00:00 | 190 |
| 2010-10-28 00:00:00 | 204 |
| 2010-11-27 00:00:00 | 383 |
| 2010-12-27 00:00:00 | 384 |
| 2011-01-26 00:00:00 | 938 |
| 2011-02-25 00:00:00 | 2202 |
| 2011-03-27 00:00:00 | 2737 |
| 2011-04-26 00:00:00 | 4936 |
| 2011-05-26 00:00:00 | 14048 |
| 2011-06-25 00:00:00 | 6250 |
| 2011-07-25 00:00:00 | 3903 |
| 2011-08-24 00:00:00 | 2938 |
| 2011-09-23 00:00:00 | 1983 |
| 2011-10-23 00:00:00 | 1965 |
| 2011-11-22 00:00:00 | 1835 |
| 2011-12-22 00:00:00 | 1812 |
| 2012-01-21 00:00:00 | 2082 |
| 2012-02-20 00:00:00 | 1901 |
| 2012-03-21 00:00:00 | 2158 |
| 2012-04-20 00:00:00 | 1969 |
| 2012-05-20 00:00:00 | 2057 |
| 2012-06-19 00:00:00 | 2040 |
| 2012-07-19 00:00:00 | 2145 |
| 2012-08-18 00:00:00 | 2419 |
| 2012-09-17 00:00:00 | 2661 |
| 2012-10-17 00:00:00 | 2958 |
| 2012-11-16 00:00:00 | 2763 |
| 2012-12-16 00:00:00 | 2611 |
| 2013-01-15 00:00:00 | 3320 |
| 2013-02-14 00:00:00 | 4933 |
| 2013-03-16 00:00:00 | 13816 |
| 2013-04-15 00:00:00 | 18162 |
| 2013-05-15 00:00:00 | 11318 |
| 2013-06-14 00:00:00 | 8095 |
| 2013-07-14 00:00:00 | 6703 |
| 2013-08-13 00:00:00 | 5505 |
| 2013-09-12 00:00:00 | 4137 |
| 2013-10-12 00:00:00 | 5632 |
| 2013-11-11 00:00:00 | 26804 |
| 2013-12-11 00:00:00 | 28776 |
| 2014-01-10 00:00:00 | 29576 |
| 2014-02-09 00:00:00 | 29839 |
| 2014-03-11 00:00:00 | 22534 |
| 2014-04-10 00:00:00 | 18065 |
| 2014-05-10 00:00:00 | 13071 |
| 2014-06-09 00:00:00 | 12180 |
| 2014-07-09 00:00:00 | 10561 |
| 2014-08-08 00:00:00 | 10925 |
| 2014-09-07 00:00:00 | 9418 |
| 2014-10-07 00:00:00 | 8218 |
| 2014-11-06 00:00:00 | 7974 |
| 2014-12-06 00:00:00 | 8136 |
| 2015-01-05 00:00:00 | 23256 |
| 2015-02-04 00:00:00 | 36913 |
| 2015-03-06 00:00:00 | 33500 |
| 2015-04-05 00:00:00 | 8450 |
| 2015-05-05 00:00:00 | 8577 |
| 2015-06-04 00:00:00 | 10303 |
| 2015-07-04 00:00:00 | 11773 |
| 2015-08-03 00:00:00 | 9725 |
| 2015-09-02 00:00:00 | 7644 |
| 2015-10-02 00:00:00 | 68601 |
| 2015-11-01 00:00:00 | 44059 |
| 2015-12-01 00:00:00 | 39244 |
| 2015-12-31 00:00:00 | 37106 |
| 2016-01-30 00:00:00 | 42233 |
| 2016-02-29 00:00:00 | 24213 |
| 2016-03-30 00:00:00 | 19336 |
| 2016-04-29 00:00:00 | 16031 |
| 2016-05-29 00:00:00 | 19935 |
| 2016-06-28 00:00:00 | 12582 |
| 2016-07-28 00:00:00 | 10646 |
| 2016-08-27 00:00:00 | 9986 |
| 2016-09-26 00:00:00 | 9844 |
| 2016-10-26 00:00:00 | 10718 |
| 2016-11-25 00:00:00 | 10691 |
| 2016-12-25 00:00:00 | 12429 |
| 2017-01-24 00:00:00 | 13664 |
| 2017-02-23 00:00:00 | 13893 |
| 2017-03-25 00:00:00 | 15276 |
| 2017-04-24 00:00:00 | 20585 |
| 2017-05-24 00:00:00 | 31381 |
| 2017-06-23 00:00:00 | 35866 |
| 2017-07-23 00:00:00 | 40726 |
| 2017-08-22 00:00:00 | 45026 |
| 2017-09-21 00:00:00 | 70477 |
| 2017-10-21 00:00:00 | 95568 |
| 2017-11-20 00:00:00 | 144762 |
| 2017-12-20 00:00:00 | 238433 |
| 2018-01-19 00:00:00 | 136872 |
| 2018-02-18 00:00:00 | 107237 |
| 2018-03-20 00:00:00 | 87087 |
| 2018-04-19 00:00:00 | 89659 |
| 2018-05-19 00:00:00 | 83999 |
| 2018-06-18 00:00:00 | 72430 |
| 2018-07-18 00:00:00 | 61360 |
| 2018-08-17 00:00:00 | 43451 |
| 2018-09-16 00:00:00 | 43516 |
| 2018-10-16 00:00:00 | 35335 |
| 2018-11-15 00:00:00 | 31502 |
| 2018-12-15 00:00:00 | 20733 |
| 2019-01-14 00:00:00 | 20046 |
| 2019-02-13 00:00:00 | 2763 | [PARTIAL PERIOD]
+---------------------+---------------+