Hmmmm. Just finished reading this and the linked-to thread at fRoots forum.

I agree, this and the linked-to thread are appropriate, on-topic discussion items, whether the discussion is here or on another board. There is an online marketplace of folk/world/blues forums these days, and it is perfectly appropriate to have conversations about the positives and negatives of them, especially when so many posters inhabit more than one of them, as is the case here.

So, the question at hand. Why Ian's playground isn't the most popular on the block amongst the sort of posters he wishes to attract?

After perusing the fRoots forum a bit, I'd have to say the problem begins with Ian's condescending attitude and overbearing arrogance. It ends with the fact that like attracts like. He has managed his forum in such a way that he has a forum full of IAA/fRoots sycophants.

Then there is his forum doppelganger, Diane Easby/Countess Rottweiller. She is masterful at yanking the welcome mat out from under nearly anyone who dares post, doesn't she?

Sometimes the problem with these sorts of online forums being sewer-like is technical, sometimes it's ideological, sometimes it's the inhabitants of the forum itself.

In the case of fRoots, I believe it's the last on the list above.