I don't really get much of a chance to survey the situation, but, of course, some things are very much on the surface, so it doesn't take much to see certain problems. I am generally curious how people think things at my old stomping grounds are going, though. It is the box office season, and I'm not really seeing that much added activity at the forums.

I don't stop by filmgasm much. It looks like a dead zone to me. My guess has been that it's the same reason that this once thriving forum doesn't thrive anymore. Truth to tell, the decline here began in November of 2006, but it still had some life. Is the dream over, and people are just foolishly hanging onto the past? Did filmgasm succeed in effectively killing interest here?

What do you regulars think?

Oh God, again?!

take away his thread creating abilities!
and give me back mine

Sure, again. I waited until it was box office season because I was told that it would pick up. To my eyes, it hasn't picked up anymore than it was, and while Avatar brought in plenty of new box office enthusiasts to BOM, which lead to that forum thriving more like it used to, and without Sean there anymore to ban people on a whim, KJ didn't seem to benefit from a renewed interest in Box Office, and now we're only a week away from Iron Man 2 opening, and it still seems like the same place it was in February.

Nothing wrong with an honest conversation about how things are going. It doesn't mean regulars should leave or are dumb for still posting here if they still find something to enjoy.

Again, you still continue to not make the changes that we discussed that you need to make. He didn't take your thread making abilities away or your ability to post images away for kicks, there was a good reason for it, so you probably should stop whining about it so much and make changes that need to be made.

Conversion to Islam is your last chance, GOOD SNACK \ CARROTS.

KJ doesn't get the influx of people a BOM does seasonally, the main site doesn't draw anyone new in like BOM's. KJ stays more even keel, with slight increases in activity seasonally, but nothing noteworthy. It's pretty much always been this way, just with different definitions of the median.

To answer your question, the water cooler is very infrequently posted in since Loyal left, and posting overall has declined a bit. The mood of the forums however, I would say has been improving, I haven't noticed as many fights, and discussion itself still seems to be on topic. I have various threads I stay current with, and more still that I actually post in.

The good news is, I am in the planning phases of rebooting the main site. Still in a conceptual phase, and it will take time because I really want to do it right for once, but there are some fun and useful things planned. If all goes well, it's at least a possibility the site starts to see some level of growth again ... which in reality is the only chance the site has for long term survival.

Something to look forward to! Yeah, I've actually been saying for awhile that this board would never be able to sustain itself unless the mainsite was the focus and not the small clique of members that aren't welcoming to new people. That obviously needs to change, too, or it will all be for not.

I would agree with you that the mood seems better than it was. I think Lecter is doing a good job, and it's not really surprising when I see that posters like yoshue, box, Argos, snack, and their ilk are no longer being given free reign here to make these forums their personal private message station. Now that some of them appear to no longer be posting here, the mood was bound to improve. If they contributed stuff to the forum that was for everybody, their negative posting and insults wouldn't have been so bad, but that's ALL they did, and it caused the community to prefer not to hang out here. The same thing was done over at filmgasm. The only people that hang out there (that were from here) claimed they only went there because of what happened here, yet they seem to hang out with and encourage those very same people, so it would appear there is a lot of bullshit in their motives, as they decided to play follow the leader, instead of showing some leadership and integrity and doing something constructive at the place that gave them a place to talk and never did anything to cause them to try to help another forum kill this one.

Good luck with your plans!

Mav made a number of good points, (including saying Lecter is doing a good job - as I see with the limited time I am now on this board) hopefully the higher ups will listen to his good points.

In addition to that, I think teh forums and the main section have to be improved at the same time. What draw would bring people onto the main site that isn't covered already by all the other movuie sites out there. So when they come on, they should have a nice running forum to spend time where they feel they are part of a worthwhile community! that they want to come back to over time.

There are a few things we can do other sites can't. We shall see, but I'm workin on it!