I agree with all the reasons mentioned above. The state of MH is affected by a multitude of factors. The state of filesharing, the state of the VK scene, the season, aging fanbase, and so on.
However, one thing I've noticed that has had a serious effect on our community over the years - and something that rarely gets mentioned - are the individual attitudes of our members. Now no community is perfect, but I've noticed that there's a subset of users here who seem to pride themselves on being "bitchy" and "petty", and seem to have set their hearts on being divisive - the kind of users that would rather talk shit about other users than discuss music with them.
Most probably don't think of themselves as part of a community here, but the fact is - we're a community because we all have a common unity - J-rock and Visual Kei. So when you have users injecting divisive elements like the ones I just mentioned, it becomes cancerous to the community as a whole. I've seen users here continually hold other users in contempt for shit they did YEARS ago. I've seen users start shit with other users for no reason. I've seen users intentionally set out to "burn" other users just to seem "cool". I've seen users intentionally stalk and harass other members. I've seen A LOT being staff here for over a decade.
Hell, even I've been thrown under the bus by certain members here - and if anyone knows me, I've always strived to be as understanding, agreeable, and diplomatic as possible - as a staff member, fellow fan, and friend. But regardless, there are people who are purely intent on being divisive - even when you approach them with good intents. But for what? Who does that help? Who does that serve? It definitely doesn't help the community at all.
I can't tell you the amount of times people have come to me personally and explained how they want to participate here, but they're afraid of getting bitched at for having a different opinion, or attacked for any odd reason. Many people have left the community for these very reasons as well. I'm pretty sure some people get off on being an asshole or a "sassy bitch", but that shit ain't cool to people who just wanna come here to fellowship with other J-rock fans in peace. We all got lives outside of here (which are difficult enough as is), so the last thing any of us want to do is log on to see some GROWN-ASS ADULT with the maturity of an emotionally neglected 13 year old project their own misery on to others. That shit ain't it.
And yeah, lest anyone want to call me out as a hypocrite - I READILY admit that I've played my part in the divisiveness and the nonsense in times past as well, and I take 110% responsibility for it. I'm not innocent either and I'll be THE FIRST to tell you that I ain't perfect. Far from it. But the point of this post is not to place blame on anyone or to call anyone out. It's simply to call awareness to the fact that we all contribute to the state of this community on an individual level as well. Our individual contributions have a resounding effect on the whole, like a ripple effect. As staff, we can enforce certain rules here. But we cannot dictate the attitudes of the members here. We can't dictate how you choose to interface with the community here. We cannot dictate the state of your heart. Nor would we want to do any of that.
I simply want to point out that the actions we take here, no matter how meaningless or miniscule they seem, DO have an effect. And based on those actions, the state of our community will either be tilted in a better direction or a worse direction. It's up to yall to decide.
People also share way less often, and it seems like the general consensus of the vkei fandom outside of this board is that sharing music is immoral and #theWorstThingYouCanDoForYourHonmei . We've beaten that subject to death, but it definitely reflects in MH's activity when there are less people contribute.
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