Bitcointalk has died. I often see 200 people online. 

Bitcointalk simply doesnt provide incentive for people to bother with it now for varying reasons.
Primarily this is financial but also even in terms of being an information source.

Merit killed bitcointalk because the only thing bitcointalk offered over reddit or any other crypto related platform was the ability to earn.
Once the centralized self serving merit system was implemented it destroyed the feeling of opportunity and free speech for most new members. 
I mean initially it was the only show in town and the central hub, but as other platforms eroded this bitcointalk also decided to self destruct.

When you create an environment where proven scammers are given support to punish their whilstle blowers by admin then you know the forum is on the way out.

There are now zero outstanding characters here, good or bad. Just a bland bunch of non achieving low level grifters and their ass munchers. I mean I often read the board but nothing happens or is said that is even interesting in a bad way.
There seems now among the remaining dregs the aim of reducing all friction. 
Those that detest each other will tolerate one another to eek out the remaining btc dust they can grind out of this place.

A sad demise to a once great forum.
However it did its job, crypto was born here. Whatever it turned into nobody should be ungrateful to bct but it's okay to be disappointed with what it became in the end. It is like the parent that turned into everything it taught you to shun and reject.

It often shocks me how many people in crypto dont know about or have ever been on bct.