Ok, normally I keep clear of the administrative side of things and avoid drama at all costs. However, this forum used to be an amazing resource for web designers and developers alike, even entrepreneurs who had very little technical knowledge. I have never been a fan of nor cared for digitalpoint or sitepoint as they are more of a business than a community.
While I know I've not been around much recently as I've been caught up in my studies, the main reason I quit coming around was simply because of the lack of new and interesting content (posts). I'm not a forum owner, but normally these issues are directly related to how well the forums are administered and moderated.
While I'm not ready to throw in the card of hope on (tf), there does need to be a step up on the administrations side of things. The only person I honestly see actively on the forums and responding to posts is Village Genius. Artashes, granted it is a holiday week, hasn't even signed on in 4 days. Back in 2008, I could understand that. But today, you can even sign in on your phone while at work, waiting in a drive-thru, on the subway/bus, whatever.
I understand everyone has lives, and it's not my forum so I also know you can do with it as you please. However, the part that really eats me is being strung along with false promises. I mean, this is a forum full of freelance and professional web developers and the community leader can't get a single project completed? That could only mean one of two things: 1) This community has fallen below what any of us could even imagine or 2) Goals are no longer actively being pursued and the site has been neglected or lowered drastically in the scope of priorities for those callin' the shots.
Also:
Gaz has been online but hasn't posted since October.
cpr signed in 2 days ago but hasn't posted since the 14th of November, 2011 (Over a year)
Looking at
http://talkfreelance.com/showgroups.php , there simply are not enough people trying to build this forum back up to its former glory. With Village Genius being the most active, and Artashes coming in second; the forum need more frequent posters. Part of the job of a staff isn't simply to moderate the community but to build upon it by motivating visitors to participate in conversational topics. That means that such conversational topics have to exist and newcomers are not likely to make them their self.
I don't like pointing fingers or blaming people, but I honestly am tired of seeing people act like they care for this community and then not do anything about it. Who cares if you get a new theme or design or not? If this forum had the quality of content that it used to, it wouldn't matter if the forum looked like craigslist or 4chan.