Hmmm, this site was already "dead" when JPV sold it. The novelty had worn off and people were looking for new interests. Real (professional) security sites were emerging, staffed by professionals and professionally funded.

Although AO was at the forefront at one time, JPV didn't have the funding or backing to follow through in this direction.

What surprises me is that Jupitermedia actually bought it in the first place

The dotcom bubble had burst, and they obviously had no plan as to what to do with it, yet they went ahead and bought it as a specific, individual transaction???????????? weird.

At least Quinnstreet have the excuse that it came bundled with all the other sites. They bought the lot in November 2009 for $18,000,000.

3. Why blue? Trying to be FaceBook?
As HYBR|D pointed out, that is selectable, and, as it is not the default, you must have selected it yourself?

My comment to all members who come and complain that the site is not like "the good old days" is:

1. Take all your posts here for the last 18 months.
2. Exclude those whining about the site layout, ads, the site is dead, and all that crap that active and new members will not find interesting.
3. Look at the end result and then you will see the problem?

I really do miss this place, I miss having a real community with useful discussions. **** this tech support nonsense. Bring back security discussions.
The subjects of the site's contents are the collective responsibility of the membership. If that happens to be technical support, then so be it. If you want security discussions then please feel free to instigate them.

I can remember the day when we would get several posts a week if not a day regarding new malware and machines that had been infected with something, or how to secure an operating system or some aspect of it. Doesn't happen today because people are more computer savvy, know how to use search engines, and have access to free software that will generally protect them from most of the bad things that happened back then.

If you look at recent threats you just don't see the malicious, destructive malware that was prevalent back then. The bad guys have graduated to cyber crime and the skiddies to "social networking sites"

As for intelligent discussions; well it takes at least two, and if you spend a couple of hours randomly browsing the archives, you will see that they were a lot rarer than some might want to think.

Actually, most discussion forums have declined over the years as has IRC. They face strong competition from the more fashionable competition of social networking sites, intelligent cellphones, tablet PCs, text messaging and the like. I guess the only sites that have fared better are those devoted to the fans/supporters of sports clubs, or to speciality interests like automobiles and motorcycles, and, of course, file sharing.

I suppose the real question is why anyone would want to ' volunteer ' their time, energy, and expertise to a site that has only commercial interests...why work for a company for free while they profit off of your contributions?
This site has no commercial interests of itself, it is hosted without charge by a commercial organisation that sells advertising. Given that there is no such thing as a free meal, I really don't have a problem with that. There is no profit from mine or anyone else's contributions, that comes entirely from their advertising skills. This is a community discussion forum at the end of the day.