I would like to share my personal experience here.
In the last few years, I have suggested this forum to three of my friends.
Two of them did not even manage to register to the end due to evil fee rules.
When they saw the message that because of the evil fee they had to pay some amount to be able to post on this forum they just started laughing and said there was no way they would pay any money for the right to post on some forum.
A third friend managed to register and luckily didn’t get the message that an evil fee should be paid but as soon as he started posting on this forum he was severely attacked by other members for a couple of unintentional, beginner mistakes he made like restarting an old thread that he simply gave up and said he would never return to this forum again.
I am also a member of other forums and the same problem exists there, the declining interest of young people in forums.
This is obviously a trend that can no longer be reversed and forums are slowly becoming an outdated way of internet communication.
However, I believe that a large number of new members have dropped out of this forum due to the evil fee and the hostile welcome of older members.