I've lurked this forum for years and I believe it has been treated the same with all of the changes that have been applied to society. It has been changed by the users themselves. Like some of the other posters have said, most of the higher-count posters and lifers have moved on to more important things (family, jobs, real life), while a new generation picks up the torch and moves this forum along. While some of the older forum members don't agree with the insights and motifs of these newer members we have to recognize that this is a social forum where we don't only interact with good friends and people of interest, but we in fact interact with all types of people and we influence them with our language, personalities, life experiences, and knowledge. I utilize this entire forum to benefit my day to day life, whether it be to catch up on silly news and gossip or to figure out which product is better through a series of arguments/tallies. All-in-all, I think this forum has progressed fairly well with the serious competition from imposing "social networking" sites.
And long live ATG.