"It seems like the biggest complaint is democracy."

Not in the least. I have never expected DV to become a democracy. Sure in certain instances of special projects where there are several people involved there should be consensus and generally when a group is involved the entire group should be on board with whatever that group is working toward.
The reason why I mentioned that is to implicate the blame on those specific individuals whose decisions have made DV what it has become. DV is amazing. Its current form is somewhat different than when it began and I get that things change; however, it is basically the same that it has always been save the people who occupy these digital halls.

There are reasons for DV faltering. There will always be drama between people. We are all different so we have to hash things out. That kind of thing has always been a part of DV. What hasn't been a part of DV is a slow but steady decline. There have been ups and downs, but this is different.
The lucid dreaming community at large is growing pretty quickly. Every month there are new books on lucid dreaming, new scientific studies, new youtube/internet personalities promoting lding. LDing in here to stay and its community will continue to grow. DV on the other hand has actually been following a track quite the opposite of the larger trend. This typically happens when something stagnates, then everything else moves along with the change. That stagnating body that refuses to change or grow will simply die. That is how evolution works. There are other LDing websites out there. DV ironically has provided many of them with solid, experienced lders.
The interesting part for me is that DV used to be a vibrant community. Like i said before, if you have access to the community forum, go take a look. There are threads there from people many of us remember. Did they leave just as part of some natural conflict between people? Did they just get bored with lding and decide to do something else? Maybe they moved to a different website they prefered? Of course all these things happen as part of a community. Yet if that community is healthy, it will continue to develop, grow and change.

As far as saying that I was referring to you OB, that isn't exactly correct. You are one of many so in a way yes, I am referring to you but there are others as well. I suppose it might be easy to blame one person, dust my hands, and walk away. Unfortunately its not that simple. There are larger trends at work than just the influence of a single person even if that single person has the power to do what needs to be done.

Also I understand there are many things that happen behind the scenes that most forum members can't see. Nobody is getting paid to keep this website running except for the people who have almost zero involvement in the actual content being published. There are always obstacles to growth, and most improvements probably take money which in turn requires permission from those providing the money needed to keep this site running. In other words: If the owner of this site feels it is fine as is, and feels change would cost more than its worth, its more than likely nothing will happen. At least until the site is no longer making money and then they will just pull the plug to cut their losses. I doubt they could find a buyer for a website that is losing money.

On the other hand, I am also sure there is a way to make this site profitable while also satisfying the community's needs. And that is the part where it all breaks down. If we are not willing to do what is necessary to make DV a success, then it will not survive.

Ya know, when we went through all this bs last year, the admins stressed that those unhappy with the forums were a tiny fraction of the forums population and that is true. It just so happened to be an active, veteran fraction of members on the forum. And you can say I am pointing fingers at this point because if you have been at DV for any amount of time you will understand. If you have only a few people making all the choices while ignoring their core community, things are not going to go well. Especially when that core community is then lumped into a single boat, chastised, branded, and insulted. It might be getting to heavy for some so I'll come back to the easy stuff.

DV is first a collection of people coming together. We humans call that a community. How it survives through cash, organization, presentation, location, etc. is all secondary. And for some reason, (I could make guesses but I think people should decide on their own instead of deciding whether I am right or someone else is right) that community has all but evaporated. Current staff members have made a valiant effort to reverse the trend and bring new life to the forum. I think we can see that is not helping. It takes more than just staff members to keep a community going. That for some reason completely escapes the perspective of the current leadership. If you take a good look at the community forum. You will see members who were not staff making massive contributions to the forum. These people were the pillars if you will. The strands of the web reaching from the center to outer edge. And those are all but gone. There are still some die hard members that come through every so often but they don't remain very active. That is probably why they are still here. If you spend so much time investing into something to have it ripped away, it can be very disheartening.

Well there is my book. I am not interesting in conflicting with anyone. I will just tell what I believe is the truth of the matter and let it lay where it will.