MamaPata wrote:discussions [...] often end up very personal or mostly circling round. (I don't think this is a forum problem, I think it's a people problem).
Regarding that, I don't see the slightest difference between both sites ; )
So mostly I figure that my time will be better spent elsewhere.
This I eventually figured myself too, so I'm mostly back to my own 'solipsistic pursuits', which is one reason why you don't see much of me any more, even if I'm glad to see some people back here still make interesting comments on otherwise tired topics.
On the subject of theorists vs. practical learners...
By the time I arrived at HTLAL (2010) I think few individuals were on an 'all-academic' camp, and if some more remained on the 'hands-on' one, I would say they were not really that focused on actual learning -- any real value in theories comes from them being trialled by experience, and in practice there is only so much stuff you can do (let alone get right) without prior knowledge of a subject before you realize there must be some reason for x/y/z / some other / easier way to do this / someone else who tried that, etc., so it must be a good idea to have a look at 'theory' in one form or another.
I think if some progress is expected to be seen among those who remain regulars (re: 'people problems'), we (you) should see some eventual convergence between those two profile classes, compounded of course with some evolution parallel to what was seen in HTLAL as people here get more experienced, and new members come on board.
As for feeling intimidated to post back at HTLAL, I never did. I consider it's only natural to bone up on any subject as necessary if you intend to partake in discussions meaningfully. Otherwise I would be consciously adding to the noise, which was never my thing.
On the other hand, there is again only so much anyone wants to share over and over, or needs to learn about language learning, or any concrete languages. This means more experienced learners will eventually move on, unless they enjoy the social side of it enough to keep hanging around (yet not so much as to move on to evil, er... social sites -- this just reminded me of the 'shallowness geeks' term coined back at HTLAL ; ). Even so, those who stick around won't necessarily keep a steady level of 'vocality'...
But all of this (past vs. present of the community, real or perceived changes in participation level, profiles, and whatnot) was discussed in the past at HTLAL too, so I'll leave it here.
As for the second question by rdearman, I would seriously consider hunting down most interesting contents of the forum wholesale and organizing them to have a 'real' main website (all I see now is a few links to 'guest posts', which I don't think will draw much attention). In turn, the main site should be prominently visible, and kept tidy, clean, and well organized -- kind of like the forum was a drafting board and the website more of a finished 'product'. I think this would maximize both its usefulness at large, and its potential to attract new visitors/members.
Edit: as usual, wording/spelling/punctuation mistakes.
But I do understand that is risky to heavily customize the platform and HTLAL could show that very well.
