I don't lose any sleep over people leaving because of fights in the political forum. If you go in there, choose to engage, and get upset enough to leave because you can't handle the opposition; well, that says more about you than the site. Personally, I just don't go into those threads because I have less than zero interest in those discussions on a sailing site.
Mike
Mike, you know you're making an argument against moderation, right? :-) If someone gets insulted and leaves over something said on a forum (by a nit wit) you know they are going to get insulted and leave over something not forum related anyway.
Yes forums are great technical resources... for everything! But is that really the future we want for this site? Just another tech forum? Make the site relevant, timely and entertaining that's what will keep this site vibrant and alive. It will take effort but when you depend on content for a revenue stream you typically have to invest in the content to maintain the demand. Stale content does not generate interest.
I won't visit the SA forums but I will scan the front page, especially when something interesting appears on my FB news feed.
I'm 52 and I use twitter. It's not great but it goes right to my mobile device so... You want the kiddies... spoon feed them that's the world we live in now.
