Here's a topic I think we could sink our collective teeth into.
Why does it seem like post count and activity in the ROMHacking sections have gone down significantly in the past year to two years? I try to visit everyday, but there are no new posts in the interesting/worthwhile sections (R&D, certain tool/tutorial threads, some of the main ROMHacking Hub), or if they are, they're mostly worthless or whining about being unable to insert something. If you don't follow any hacks, or follow very few, there's almost no reason to log in and look around everyday. If you checked in every two weeks, you wouldn't miss anything important.
Why is this? I remember a time when new innovations were coming out once or twice a month, people would be talking with each other and commenting up a storm, making suggestions and critiquing each other. Nowadays, it seems that most hacks are samey (with few exceptions that have a sense of quality to them), the R&D subforum might as well be dead (this is the subforum I log in for), and worthwhile discussion is no where to be found. Actual activity is localized to the Beginner's Lounge (yet another problem with having the Scrapbox back, it kills activity in the important subforums) and is mostly worthless to the average reader, who wants news, new innovations, some hack updates, and lively discussion on topics that they could chime in on.
Not only this, but we've been retreading ground in almost a cycle. How many times do we have to see a "What do(n't) you like to see in a hack?" or a "How did you start Hacking?" or "POST YOUR FAVORITE HACKS GUISE" thread before they need to become stickies? No one seems to be encouraging any meaningful discussion, and the only group of people that are communicating are other veteran/mainstay hackers, and we mostly feel like we have to do that through the irc, as the forums seem dead and slow.
What can be done to alleviate this? Thoughts?