No I'm not "unhappy" here - like I said the forum is doing relatively well. That's great that APF is coming up 4th on the "poster forum" Google search. But most potential members probably type "movie poster ____" when searching and APF doesn't come up. Furthermore, we shouldn't be satisfied with the status quo and everyone wants to see more active new members.
Thierry has repeatedly posted that he's "tired of seeing the same 5 people post."
A couple of people (including Holiday) posted that this forum "might fail" if I left. Which is certainly not true but we have lost three major contributors - Carson (dare I speak his name?), Wonka, and Jeannie. If 4-5 more major contributors left, the forum could fail, given how top-heavy it is.
As great as they are, I think the reality is that NS4 and MOPO have been stagnant for years. They all have a great core - but relatively small - group of contributors. If you read over those forums, you'll see a good number of complaints about the lack of new members. Some NS4 members dismissed MPF as a "bunch of newbies" but clearly there was a hint of jealousy in those remarks.
I checked Expresso Beans. They have 700 members who have made more than 100 posts. Of course, it's been around several years and the general art print hobby is larger than movie posters, but it's indicative of what could have happened if this hobby weren't split into four forums.
I received this message on Ebay from an MPF member this morning. How many of you have seen something similar?
"Check out allposterforum.com - everybody left MPF and went there a year ago. MPF is a dead zone now."
"funnily enough i was going to post on MPF last night and ask why the hell nobody ever responds to anything! then thought better of it as i didn't want to upset anyone. that explains things. thanks!"
Given all that, it's hardly outrageous to suggest that the forum might benefit from a name change reflecting what actually interests members and what might draw in new members. At minimum, 50s excellent suggestions should be followed.