> the goal is to keep discussion and the users on the site. This will make users come back Back when I first got online and only had one forum I was interested

> the goal is to keep discussion and the users on the site. This will make users come back Back when I first got online and only had one forum I was interested in, this was true - but it really doesn't scale. Trying to keep up with even 3 active forums by visiting each in turn is painful. Since then, I've pretty much ignored any information source that doesn't have either RSS or email feeds, since I can multiplex hundreds of those with no problem :P (For a more average-joe version of this, note how facebook has largely replaced independent forums and IRC - people are lazy, and going out of their way to check an external site on a daily basis is much more work than clicking a "like" button and having that site's news become part of their standard routine)