I'd play the black side of d4...I'd be happy to play the Blumenfeld or Nimzo (or even the Budapest...), though in each case it's because I'm trying to learn the opening (either the nonrefuted bits of the Blumenfeld accepted, or some of the c5 lines in the Nimzo).  It would be good if there was a critical mass of interested players for both sides...maybe someone should take a vote on which openings people would be interested in studying this way, and then start a game in the opening which gets the most votes (so that, ideally, it doesn't just turn into a corr. game between two people).

I'd be happy to contest a CK with either white or black. It maybe a very nice idea for the 1..e4 forum as frankly I am a bit bored with all the hippo's, Scandinavians and Alekhines, though sometimes they're usefull for ideas in my white games.

The number of members online at any given time seems to be rising.  I've been struck by how many people are online when I log on.  But the number of posts does seem to be diminishing.  It may be that the regulars are running out of things to say, but there is a real dirth of good topics.  SF mentioned the French being on life support: well, look at the current lines under discussion.  I'm not sure that one of them could be considered a main line, and when someone does post a question about the MacCutcheon or the Winawer, it sinks down the list fast.  If the Latvian and BDG are anything to go by, the majority of active posters seem concerned with marginal openings that are dubious at best.  The Scandinavian is more popular than the Caro-Kann.  I've tried to start a number of discussions on main line Caro material, and no one has answered.

Maybe it's time to try some more discussion-format games.  I'm no BDG fan, but I thought the games there were very interesting.  Those were among the most productive posts in really getting under the skin of the opening...

Yes, judging from the number of posts, the board is less active than before.  However, if you look back at the posts before the big crash in late 2005, you’ll see a lot of silly postings by a few prolific people who apparently spent their time congratulating each other for reaching Olympus (that’s what they called reaching 500 posts).  Does anyone want that type of foolishness to reappear?  And, most people probably would prefer not to be bombarded with inane jabbering about cult openings like the BDG.  So, in one sense, the current board could be viewed as an improvement over the self-congratulators, the cultists, the one-word spammers, and other assorted fruitcakes.

yes this board is abit deader than before... but still not completely dead!~ 

Perhaps many posters, having made 500 posts, have said all they wanted to say about chess.

How ironic would it have been if no-one had replied to this topic? 

Seriously, at the moment I would agree that the board seems less active than ever, but that's probably because all the posts are concentrated on a few subjects. However, in the forum's heyday topics like the King's Gambit, Belgrade, Dragon and various others were seeing huge numbers of posts per day, whereas now it does appear that only the BDG is stirring enough people. 

The problem is that it's very hard to cater to newer players - if they want to discuss anything it is up to them to post a topic and await replies. The statistic that 60% of members do not post is somewhat worrying, however - if people like Adams are lurking on the forum, I'm sure it could cause a boom of activity if they contributed to some threads!

Even I thought so and let it pass. Perhaps, the word crap was the culprit. At hind sight, sure, it is in bad taste.

But, my post was not about democracy. Every known vocation in this world has evolved its own code of ethic or industry best practices as ERP guys put it. I have trouble believing a forum like this cannot evolve one while retaining quality AND broadening the participation base. That's the point I was making.