Been there briefly on their beginnings and it was shitposting all over. Of course that since I knew Bitcointalk already I had higher standards, but I can't tell for others. People did spend time there and I can't really tell why.
But if it went from bad to worse then yeah, sooner or later they went from potential competition to no competition at all.

Oh well, if there aren't better sites then maybe it's the fact that forums are no longer a thing in 2021. And since the search engines may not send the users here.. the number of newcomers is lower than it could be.


The evil fee may indeed have its role in all this.


Something else that may worth mentioning is a possibly growing problem of group(s) ganging up and using DT and trust feedback for their own goals/benefit and may discourage people (especially on local boards, I guess) and make them leave the forum. But I don't actually know how big this problem is. I do see now and then "dubious" people ending up in DT, but I didn't pay that much attention (yet?).