I posted the below in the BOL Law, Ethics, and Psychotherapy forum over a year ago and I thought that it is very applicable to this thread as well...

OK so if you want my honest opinion as to why your forum is dying (after reading your sticky)…I used to post frequently in the old forum before your software was changed over - the very last thread I participated in survives to this day in your archive. The old forum used to be lively. I believe a reason why your forum is much less active today, and I made this suggestion a few times to you years ago: archive old posts, instead of deleting them. You responded to this suggestion with the statement that you did not know how to archive, so your only choice was to delete, because the forum posts were making the forum too huge.

It got pretty sad to see so many people take lots of time writing well reasoned sometimes lengthily and involved posts only to see them deleted after a few weeks. So I think even before you changed over to the new software, this alone frustrated people and they figured why bother participating when the work get’s deleted. I believe that your forum started dying long before the new software was implemented.

A second reason for the lack of posts, is that I believe professionals and students are much less likely to post confidential or personal information when they are required to leave you a valid email address. Many people who discuss these kinds of issues wish to retain their anonymity. Even though people can set up an anon address, some people don't know this and are still scared away by having to register.

A third reason why I think your forum is dying, is that since there are not very many posts in the archive from which to research or revive or continue old discussions still pertinent today, it gives people less material on which to draw or come up with new ideas as to what kind of threads might be interesting to start.

A fourth reason why I think your forum is dying, is because when people don’t see a very large archive, there are only a couple of hundred posts, which is pretty small for a forum that has been around for over a half dozen years, by forum standards. People look at that small archive and figure that if the archives are that small this probably was not a very active forum to begin with (which it actually was but most of the interesting posts are gone now), so they don’t waste their time. People today don’t like to waste their time posting unless they believe that they are participating in an active forum in which they will get many responses. The Internet is huge compared to 1998 and your competition is much greater so you need to keep people happy if you want them to re visit your forum.

A fifth reason why I think your forum is dying, is because people figured that since you deleted so many good discussions about Law and Ethics of Psychiatry, when user names were NOT required, then you probably will delete even more now, now that people are required to have registered user names and passwords.

This was not indented to be a flame or an insult, I just write what I see.

IMHO, the BOL forums are not dying, they are dead. The moderators of some of the most (formerly) active forums here at Behavior OnLine killed the entire www.behavior.net site. They Killed the BOH site via deletions of posts which may have been perceived contrary to moderator views. Posts which were perceived as a threat to moderator vanities. Posts which were perceived to be an affront to moderator self aggrandizement. Posts which may have been at times colorful, and "outside the norm" of the most overstuffed and pompous moderator sense of self, of whom were lacking a sense of humor, and believe that any subject, if not found to fit their narrow view of the mental health profession, is a threat to their therapeutic sense of self, or a threat to their own manhood. For example, for merely suggesting in a BOL forum that top paid psychotherapists devote a few hours a week to charitable causes, by donating a small portion of their time to needy or homeless folks who need therapy services, I was accused by a forum moderator of "attacking" the profession, and two subsequent posts were deleted for suggesting that the charity concept was a simple one. The moderator engaged in verbose, nonsensical Marxist-Leninist political ideology babble which had nothing to do with my original suggestion, IMO to impress himself and colleagues. If suggesting charity is "attacking" the profession, it clearly shows what two primary motives are of many career psychotherapists. Money, and self aggrandizement via nebulous verbiage which has little to do with the discussion at hand.

So why bother to take the time and trouble to write and post something, when there is a good chance it will get deleted? It's a waste of time.

What amazes me, is that while the moderators of some of the most (formerly) active forums on www.behavior.net were killing their own site, they kept asking the question - why is the forum dying. It's like Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

The fact that my response to this thread is the first post this forum has received in seven months attests to the idea that this forum is dead. Put BOL out of it's misery, and shut it down. Either that, or allow more freedom of speech (excepting spam and outright juvenile behavior) - this is the only way to save it. Jazz it up with some new moderator blood and/or fresh ideas and openness. Out with the old, in with the new.

The way it is now, many of the BOL forums have become a cliché’. An embarrassment to mental health professionals who are doing real work and struggling with modern problems. For many of the forums, BOL has become a vanity site whose sole purpose is the self aggrandizement of a handful of some of the forum moderators who mainly enjoy reading their own posts and derive gratification from their belief that they are widely read and their theories are widely accepted across the globe, as well as a place for purveyors to sell their wares, services, and pedal .pdf Adler packets for some pocket change. It has become a joke. That’s not intended as a flame, I’m sharing my ten year observations of this site. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Even the head moderator of this forum, John Suler, thinks this forum, and BOL, is dead. If he thought it alive, why has he not posted here in 20 months?

QED