I believe that the drops in posts/participation have been partly due to the disappearence of Maciamo as he had a knack of tweeking the nerve in many people making them post mainly because they disagreed with him. Granted, some of his posts were argumentative and I disagreed with his viewpoints often, but I enjoyed the debate. Also, even if he disagreed with me he often gave me "rep points" for my stance and viewpoints. That, to me, is a true and honest debator.
The point is he instilled thought in people that made them post whether they agreed with him or not. Just look at the number of replies on many of his threads and you will see what I mean.
Unfortunately, many people took his arguments/views to heart and thought him smug or stuck up or "holier than thou" and begged for his banishment even though he was an admin and a part owner of this site and, due to the overwhelming posts against him, he removed himself as an admin and a participant when he left Japan. This has left a hole in JREF that has not been filled as of yet and the participation has dwindled dramatically. I for one wish he would return as he had a knack of starting threads that I wish I had as they forced people to participate just to express their viewpoint whether they agreed with him or not and he often touched on points that many people have thought about, but never posted about.
The man mastered reading, writing, and speaking Japanese in, I believe, less than a year, was quite read and learned in Japanese culture and was not afraid to express his viewpoint knowing he would be disagreed with.
However, if you debated him, you better come armed and prepared as he would tear you to shreds if you were not up on Japan and the Japanese
culture. Many were not armed, taken to task, and called for his head when they got "hurt" and lostv the argument/debate. And, in the end, they won.
Also, to be fair, there were many who were armed, but could not present themselves articulately as were those who were armed, but got angry when they were presented with flaws in their argument. I was among those, but I did not call for his head. I just had to find a way to make myself more artiuculate and I did after much frustration. In the end, he forced participation on my part as he made me think before I posted.
Also, this a forum about Japan and, over time, many of the same questions get asked over and over and over again without the poster/thread starter even doing a search. Therefore, many of the long-termers like myself do not even bother answering as it does get tiresome and redundant after a while.
These days I only post when I feel I have something to offer as there are many experts here living in Japan long term that can offer much like Glenski, Mike Cash, Mikawa Ossan, Epigine, Dutch Baka, etc. to name among many others too numerous to mention like those that own their own business/school that they can offer far much than I can.
Therefore, we need thread starters that can incite participation in the
same vein as Maciamo when it comes to speaking about Japan. Sure, there are many who can start threads that invite participation in the fields of religion and science like Mycernius and Tsuyoiko, or Astroboy when it comes to economics and Japan or even myself with my conspiracy theories, but there are few who can invite such participation when it comes to Japan as Maciamo did.
Even though there were many like myself who can answer a thread and participate, there are few who can start a thread to invite mass participation.
This, I feel is what is lacking in JREF and I wish I had the knack Maciamo had for inviting participation and getting people to reply.
