i remember seeing some research ages ago that suggested that forums of this kind have a finite life. i'll try and dig it out after le mans. that this has been going so long suggests its been doiong something right.
the creation of the original one may have been built around trying to resolve some of the more serious design flaws of the earlier hoods.
the creation of more models, with specific and different issues may make people feel less like we are all in this together. shifting the purpose from an information resource toward a general chat forum is always going to be tricky.
ideas seem to evolve too, about what the forum should provide. and its a tricky task i guess to hold all of that together as a concensus for a long time.
the act that the online here is backed up by real time meetings helps to keep things together, but i'd suggest that other forums such as piston heads and locostbuilders for me are a better place to go for general chat, as they have a huge number of active members.
paul