Increasingly, I feel RAFO vindicates Mike pulling the plug three years ago. The reason probably matters less now than the reality. I still hold some hope that changes, but it is only possible if we get more of these newbs you speak of yet I rarely see. People who hung out online in HS/college have a way of finding careers, mortgages, spouses and kids that preclude spending hours/day posting. Unless someone fills that growing void it is pretty obvious what will eventually happen, obvious enough Mike saw it coming three years ago when he and many others got a career, mortgage, spouse and kids.

Some unique content to draw them would help immensely, but there is a cascade effect: Less regulars post reasons to visit, so less people stay and post. We can only go so far with the distinctiveness of a format everyone but wotmaniacs finds cumbersome and confusing, a problem that just gets worse as the number of wotmaniacs at RAFO falls. Falling wotmaniac numbers would not be a site problem if there were anyone to replace them, but....