Its less multicultural now. Tolerance levels are lower. People are less inclined to engage themselves.

You know things are going the wrong way when people are using the recent comments feature more often that the tracking feature. When new threads grow very fast but old threads die quickly even though they are interesting.

You use the recent comment feature so you can socialize with whoever is online quickly, instant gratification. When you use the tracking feature, you engage yourself in a topic that is important to you and you are willing to wait some time before you get a reply to your comment.

I miss those threads that used to go on for weeks like slowly simmering coal on a long cold night, now its all bang bang bang fireworks :-)