if by "bitchier" you mean fun, then yeah i'd have to agree with that sentiment.

Trust me it was flame central. I loved it, and miss it to be honest. But everything here has to be PC now so oh well. It wouldn't be as boring if there was some more fire and passion in the threads.

we aren't anti-passion. If we didn't do what we did as mods the only passion here would be the gamesmanship of one-liners.

Oh Big3 I was not indicating you guys dimmed the passion its about the members needing to step up. I do too.

I'm perfectly fine with MB being more strict now, this forum used to be loaded with people who were impossible to have a friendly discussion with.

I believe quality is not an anathema of profit. So I find strictness reassuring.

I've just read this thread through from start to finish, and from what I've seen and experienced in my first 24 hours on here is entirely positive. There is a wide ranging knowledge base, opinions get bantered about with very little hostility, and the place is well organised.
As for it dying, then all I have to say is that if this place is dying, then it must have been surreally busy at some point.
As for the frontpage blog idea, I can see the value of it, but I would imagine that the sheer volume of potential reviews would make it unreadable, and I'm sure the admin have better things to do with their free time than to read and critique endless reviews from amateur writers? I know that most fans of particular bands would love to see their views on their heroes aired in public, it's only human nature to want your voice to be heard, but if that resulted in it getting drowned out by the crowd then surely it's not going to work well.

Actually, the last time I looked at site statistics, it looked as if the amount of activity - posts written each day - has only increased with time .. so lack of activity shouldn't be the problem.

My guess is that although there are things to improve on, I think some people also get a bit tired of the site after a while (f.ex X amount of years).

Such is the only reason I get a bit bored of this place once in a while - as I said earlier in the thread, for me it's nothing to do with any limitations this site has, just human nature. I find I usually get my sense of enthusiasm back after a a few days' break as well.

I get bored too and I've only been here a fragment of the time many of you vets have been around, so I can totally understand. Since I came here, november 2008, I have to say I think the general worth and quality of the site has only increased, though.