Honestly, i don't like writing article solely for SEO. The article usually have mediocre quality and not really helpful. We better learn few thing from Stack Overflow/Stack Exchange (
https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/14056). They have good SEO, while maintain content quality and doesn't create article solely for 1st result on search engine.
As you pointed out, it can be done. Targeting top spot might be too much, but having the forum appear on the first page of search results for certain keywords is doable with a quality SEO team.
Another thing that probably attracted more people to bitcointalk are altcoins; from my experience, new people tend to get into altcoins first (looking for quick profit) and then later on focus more on bitcoin.
Good point. I am sure many of our currently active members started out collecting a few alts and shitcoins along the way. As the time passed, they either made some profit or learned from their mistakes and moved to bitcoin. But 2017/2018 was a long time ago.
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.
That happens unfortunately and I have seen it as well. We, the elders can be tough sometimes when freshlings start breaking the rules. Some are justifiably put in their place, while some, like your friend, receive too harsh of a treatment.
I can't imagine how this forum will have any user appeal if altcoins (bounty) are removed.
That won't happen. Even with all the problems the altcoin boards bring, theymos and the admins are well aware of how much appeal it has to many people and I don't see them cutting of their hand.
Also, I don't think that Bitcointalk is losing it's user base, there are new users in the forum that are slowly making merits and making a name for themselves, it's a slow burn so there's nothing to worry about.
It's not really a matter of opinion. You have stats in the OP of this thread and several other threads that show a decrease in activity and active users. Those can't be overlooked and ignored by having a different opinion.