Theres a quick read break down at the bottom, but please dont just read that without the explaintions reading things out of context will only ever cause problems.
Tbh i think the main reasons for the general slow down are evident in the first page of this thread.
1. the files arent available - At first it was offical files released from Wemade FTP, then it was the recoded TD files that were standard, now though as was pointed out the job seems to large for anyone to share their newly recoded server files - with out a stable file set you wont have truely stable servers (remember all the old home based servers
they were fun, get back from college play for 45 minutes to find the hosts mum turned off thier PC! lol the excitement ) anywho my point here would be for some of the lovely geekier geeks to be able to combine efforts and (for the benefit of the community as a whole) release the files, and if someone isn't able to carry on with the recode or will leave a large whole in the coding ability, please use your knowledge and find someone who can fill it - Dont get me wrong, i would love to be able to help out but i simple don't have the knowledge in the real coding world.
2. The arguments are self defeating, having someone ask for suggestions on how to improve things, having posts simple saying "You can't" or "It's dead, dont bother" only put thats thought into someones mind set and its had to then remove it - I've seen server count raise and fall massively because of rumours of wipes or closure. So i thinik you could have a new wave of Mods that simply remove any signs of the post which simple have no benefit - don't go on a punishment spree because the people who dod it have always enjoyed the fire that comes from them, so simply removing them and keeping the thread completely on topic will help. but this does require a large time commitment from some or a few people.
3. the next point is able the advertising, i dont know about you guys but when i search for a problem with my mir files, an error on the M2 or looking for a little bit off scripting code the google search almost always bring back RZ, I know mental and i have had problems in the past but its no mean feat to actually be at the top of google almost all the time for completely random mir related problems, and the reason for that is that all the advertising is done by the poeple posting their problems. it would seem LOMCN seems to be tidied so often that you remove lots of the free advertising you get from the users themselves. so my thoughts on that front would be instead of deleteing old thread just moved them all in to an Archive section which cant be posted on - it will save people re-asking the same questions time and time again as well which i think is a benefit in itself :P
4. the Main reason i used to come to LOMCN was to find new mir servers to play. these days it seems pretty hard to get a advert post listed - (possibly due to my previous hosting team lol its been an interesting journey) but i was looking at the rules for advertising a while back, and was quite shocked at how hard it get a advert sorted, so i gave up it was only because i was getting greif from my players that i actually tried again and actually managed it. so if i was struggling, i would hate to see how a first time host would get on. in the early days you could come to lomcn find 100 different ip addresses for servers, some would be rubbish, some would be offline, some would have brilliant features but the host would give up after 3 days. But all of which you simply needed to change the IP and the server name in your client file set and you could log straight on with out having to patch anything and then have a play and decide if you actually wanted to do the patches later.
so in short i think LOMCN would benefit from
1) 1 set of files that everyone is uses
2) Stringent moderation - remove pointless posts.
3) Advertising - Let the forum advertise itself (using point 4)
4) Allow people more freedom when posting about their server advert - If they dont put the Exp Rate in dont reject the server listing, just let the first player thats interested in a new server make the post saying "Exp Rate?"
Thats about it really, other than some of the bigger attitude thats are on the forums that can come across harsh if you don't actually know them which could be spoken with, i still this LOMCN is a pretty good information base and i do still advise people to come here if they are struggling with their server files.
All the best
Lone
P.S Roberts post had some very good ppoints in it. - if you skipped it, go back up this page and have a quick read.