Photo Forums in Decline?

Is it just me? Or does participation on many photography forums seem to be in decline?

I have no (scientific) empirical evidence to support my opinion but, it seems to me, photography forums have generally become less popular than they once were. Sure, the onset of Spring and the improved weather that comes with it might account for some people devoting less of their leisure time to things like surfing (and participating on) photo forums but, at the same time and as an example, I don't see a decline in traffic coming to this site. Besides, the decline in participation on photo forums seems to have been going on for quite some time now.

I suppose I should qualify my perceptions regarding this: I have no idea if traffic has declined at all the many photography forums that populate the internet, i.e., a significant drop-off in the number of surfers visiting these sites. I certainly don't have access to those sites' statistics and I don't visit enough different photo forums to know if my perceptions potentially represents a universal trend. But of the forums I generally visit, participation is noticeably down. By "participation," I'm referring to those visitors who actually post something on these forums, e.g., images, critiques, comments, or anything meaningful (or non-meaningful) beyond simply showing up and being a passive visitor, lurker, or looky-loo.

It's possible that participation on forums are cyclical and we're simply in one of those less-active cycles. I know I've been contributing less than I once did. There's no real reason (that I can think of) for my slow-down as an actively contributing member of more than a few forums. For whatever reasons, I've been less inclined to spend time sharing my thoughts and opinions. Maybe it's a case of photo-forum burnout? I really don't know.

Oh well. Things change. I have no idea if this is a permanent trend or a temporary one. It's just an observation. Time will tell.

The pretty girl at the top is Sunny Leone, 2003's Penthouse "Pet of the Year." The image is from a location shoot at an art gallery a few weeks ago. Sunny was a peach to work with. I lit her with two lights: A mainlight modified with a large, 4' Photoflex umbrella and a backlight using a small umbrella. I also used a Westcott 5-in-1 reflector, silver side out, to bounce in some front-fill. MUA was Melissa.