The problem has to do with fashion.general purpose forums are dying in the era of social networks. To chat and discuss things with their friends people now use facebook.
When there is a specific question they need answered they go to specialized forums. It closely models specialization in the real world.
That, and people are getting busier. As sad as it is a lot of the fine folks who made this site great have moved on and have no time to just sit around and post.
