All very true. However, this could also be compared to the demise of gps-themed forums such as GPSReview, GPSPassion, GPSTracklog and LaptopGPS. I was a moderator for many years at GPSReview and IMO it really was the best site for reviews and forum discussion. One day it just vanished with no warning. It was sold to a big corporation around Y2k and the founder, Tim Flight, apparently did quite well in that deal. I think we can see a direct correlation between the rise in smartphone technology and and decline in interest in traditional gps and camera hardware. The companies that own these older sites no longer see a profit and just dump the whole thing.
Recently became a moderator at GPSFileDepot, another old site that is still hanging in there. The main interest there is the large archive of free, user-created Garmin maps. There used to be a lively discussion of map-making technical issues and new GPS hardware in the forums. Virtually nothing now. The original owner, Dan Bloomberg plans to keep it online for the foreseeable future. But he's sort of an "absentee landlord" and with no moderators, the forums literally overflowed with spam. So I was happy to accept when he asked me to help, because I want to have at least one place where it's possible to discuss GPS. Unfortunately, it's still mainly a spammer's playground, but they don't last very long with a new sherrif in town.
I'm also a moderator at DVinfo.net which was one of the first sites dedicated to the new miniDV cameras such as the Sony VX1000 and Canon XL1 around Y2k. That site is still owned and managed by Chris Hurd and he has no intention to discontinue. There's a pretty low volume of posts these days and only a handful of regulars, but there's a lot of knowledge in those old posts.
OTOH, I'm a moderator now at MacRumors and things are certainly hopping over there with over 10,000 posts a day and more than a million registered users. Have already banned about 50 spammers and it's not even noon yet.
www.dpreview.com
