I think that if you have been active since your very first day as a member and have spend at least a couple of years being active the trend is that:
1. Everything looks interesting and fun; you're just getting to know the server.
2. You establish online friendships and have your group of friends.
3. You enjoy knowing many things about the server, and the fact that you have made a circle of friends makes it easier for you to have popular threads.
4. Time goes by and many of them start logging off; interest on knowing new members disappear.
5. A sense of loneliness fills you when logging in and see that everybody is pretty much new where you used to post.
6. As a consequence, the interest on being in the site disappears.
Right now, I'm on the sixth stage, and I'm not planning on working on it at all because I have bigger responsibilites outside. The site has gone downhill because most new members use the same overused and try-hard expressions in order to become distinguishable. The YTT and Games sections have lost their relevance (it doesn't mean they are not the best section from the server, though) People have less or no commitment to updating/finishing the threads they start.
2009 and 2010 used to be cool. There were lots of Latin American people on the Chart forums and lots of interesting fights in The Lounge to see. There weren't as many stans as there are now, so it was easier to discuss about music.
The overcapacity and no NHB have made it go downhill. But the thing that's affected it negatively the most is the insane censorship and how a lot of the fun seems to be sucked out by the mods at times (even though I understand they're probably told to do it by the admins).
I'm sure that NHB was taken way too far by some trolls and the mods had to take it down for good, I mean, you can shade and troll some users in a funny way, but personal attacks are not cool at all
I'll start. Down hill since I've joined. The ****** server, the members are starting to become more trollish than ever and in MY opinion the Mods are biased.
pretty much
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and of course search being disabled and most of the new annoying members
Anyone before early 2011-ish doesn't know how live this site used to be. Now it's nothing but a breeding ground for trolls and clones with stale and overused shade. Members used to be distinguishable and have personality.
But this downhill trend may have to do with the dismantlement of the NHB and the large spike in new members.
I barely login anymore because the site is just straight up boring now. Even the biggest personalities on this site either stopped logging in or faded amongst the influx.
Down. All these new members from late 2012-now are trying so hard to make a name for themselves it's embarrassing. The server, the mods, the censoring, the lack of originality these days. Just tacky.